



Book^ /: 7 ..„ 






. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



OF THE 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 



i 






BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL, 



Sitst Jlrcljbisjjoji of fJalttmore: 



SELECT PORTIONS OF HIS WRITINGS. 



EDITED BY 

JOHN CARROLL BRENT. 




BALTIMORE: 
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY JOHN MURPHY, 

146 MARKET STREET. 

MDCCCXLIII. 




Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight 
hundred and forty -three, by John Carroll Brent, in the clerk >s office of 
the District court of Maryland. 



PRINTED AND BOUND BY JOHN MURPHY, 

146 Market street, Baltimore. 



[J 






THE MOST REV. SAMUEL ECCLESTON, 

THE PRESENT 

Worthy Head of the Roman Catholic Church in the U. States of America, 

THIS WORK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 

3Y KIS FAITHFUL AND OBEDIENT SERVANT, 

THE EDITOR. 



1* 



PREFACE. 



In presenting to the patronage of the public 
the following Biographical Sketch of the 
Most Rev. John Carroll, first Archbishop 
of Baltimore, the editor deems it proper to 
make a few preliminary remarks. 

Having come into possession of the unfin- 
ished manuscript of the late Daniel Brent, 
(Consul of the United States for Paris, 
France,) the nephew and executor of the 
distinguished subject of this Memoir, the 
subscriber considered it an act of duty, as it 
has become one of love, to carry into execu- 
tion the original intention of its author, thus 
unfortunately interrupted by his death. He 
is well aware of the difficulty of the task. 



Vlli PREFACE. 

owing to the time that has elapsed since the 
demise of the Archbishop 3 the scattering and 
destruction of many of his papers, and the 
consequent inability, on his part, to treat the 
subject as fully as he would desire, and as the 
nature of it would demand. But, urged on 
by a wish to do tardy though inadequate 
justice to the memory of a prelate whose 
services in the cause of religion, and attach- 
ment to his native land, should never be for- 
gotten, and cheered by the hope of being 
able to contribute his mite for the benefit of 
the first congregation the Archbishop estab- 
lished in this country, to the repairing of 
whose church he will devote a portion of the 
proceeds, — the undersigned has ventured to 
undertake a task which, however incomplete, 
may induce some one more competent to 
apply himself to the composition of a more 
detailed Biography. 

It has been deemed proper, in order to 
afford the reader an opportunity of forming 



PREFACE. IX 

his own estimate of the style and literary 
productions of Archbishop Carroll, to intro- 
duce a part of his journal in Europe, one or 
two of his sermons, and a few of his con- 
troversial writings and letters. 

In order to insure a good engraving of the 
portrait of the Archbishop, the editor has 
secured the services of the best artists in 
this Qountry; and he thinks it sufficient to 
mention, that it is from a faithful and cre- 
ditable copy by the Messrs. Bogle, of Bal- 
timore, of the original portrait by Stuart, 
now in the possession of Lloyd N. Rogers, 
Esq. of Druid Hill, who kindly gave the use 
of it for that purpose. 

He finally returns his most sincere thanks 
to the Rev. gentlemen of Georgetown Col- 
lege, to whom he is indebted for much valu- 
able information, and to those of the Roman 
Catholic clergy, who have evinced an inter- 
est in a work which they feel assured is for 
the benefit of that religion of which they 



X PREFACE. 

are such zealous pastors ; in proof of which, 
he adds the approbation of the Most Rev. 
Samuel Eccleston, the present Archbishop 
of Baltimore, and a copy of a letter from 
the Very Rev. William Matthews, rector of 
St. Patrick's church, in this city. 

John Carroll Brent. 

Washington city, D. C, December, 1842. 

w The Sketch of Archbishop Carroll's Life, written 

by the late Daniel Brent, Esq., will, in the absence of 

a more extended Biography, be read with interest and 

edification." 

f Samuel, Archbishop of Baltimore. 

John Carroll Brent, Esq. 

Dear Sir: I have attentively perused your very 
interesting memoir of the Most Rev. Archbishop Car- 
roll, and from my intimate acquaintance with him, 
know it to be correct. The Catholic community in 
parts of the United States have long and anxiously 
expected this highly important work, and will hail 
with great satisfaction its forthcoming. 

Your humble servant, 
(Signed) W. Matthews. 

Washington city, D. C, January 19, 1842. 



E RRAT A. 

The following errors have escaped the notice of the editor, owing to his being 
at a distance from the city during the course of publication. 
For "of," in 11th line of 21st page, read " from." 
Before "done," in 10th line of 106th page, read "had." 
For "was," in 14th line of 118th page, read "were." 
For " Deux Ponts," in 8th line of 256th page, read "Newbourg." 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



OF THE 



MOST EEV. JOHN CAEEOLL 



Daniel Carroll, the father of the subject of 
this biography, belonged to a Roman Catho- 
lic family of high respectability in Ireland, 
which had forfeited its property to the crown 
on account of its religion. 

At a very early period of his life this gen- 
tleman migrated to the then colony of Mary- 
land, to seek his fortune, or rather to procure 
the means of living, and with the hope of 
experiencing by the change some relief from 
the multiplied privations under which the 
Catholics of Ireland were at that time suf- 
fering. He settled at Upper Marlbro' on the 
Patuxent, where he established himself as a 
merchant, and under the guidance of a sound 
and excellent judgment, by steady industry, 
unshaken probity, and scrupulous punctuality 
in his dealings, acquired a competent estate 
2 



14 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

before his death, always conciliating to him- 
self in a high degree, the esteem and consid- 
eration of all who knew him. 

Within a few years after his settlement at 
Marlbro', Mr. Carroll married Eleanor, 
daughter of Henry Darnall, esquire, a Roman 
Catholic gentleman of the neighborhood, who 
had inherited the family seat of the Wood- 
yard and adjoining lands to an immense ex- 
tent; — but which were then partly, and af- 
terwards entirely, alienated from his family, 
through the improvident management and 
easy disposition of the proprietor. 

By this union, however, Mr. Carroll acquir- 
ed a treasure far beyond the value that mere 
riches could confer. In his young wife were 
blended all the qualities calculated to render 
the conjugal state delightful. With an ex- 
cellent and discriminating mind were united 
in the character of this lady the best accom- 
plishments that a finished education, assisted 
by a natural graciousness of temper, could 
impart; — her father having at a very early 
period of her life placed her in a select school 
in France, where she continued with corres- 
pondent advantage till she had completed her 
education, when she returned to Maryland. 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 15 

In all the domestic and social relations of 
life, the virtues of this lady shone forth with 
peculiar lustre, exhibiting her in the various 
characters of daughter, sister, wife, mother, 
and friend, in the most amiable and edifying 
lights; a spirit of genuine and unostentatious 
piety incessantly co-operating with, and aid- 
ing, the native benevolence of her heart, in 
the exercise of all the charities and offices 
growing out of her station in society. 

Many years afterwards, having lived to see 
her son, who had closely imitated the virtues, 
and profited by the lessons and examples of 
his parents, elevated by the Holy See to the 
highest dignity of the Church in this country, 
she closed her eyes in peace, at an age, but 
seldom attained by man. In a letter of May 
23, 1796, to his intimate friend, the Rev. 
Charles Plowden, the Bishop thus announces 
the loss he had recently encountered: "I 
likewise have to tell mine to you— my good 
and venerable mother closed her long, and I 
may add, her holy life, on the 3d of February, 
in the full possession of her intellectual facul- 
ties, till she ceased to speak an hour or two 
before her death. She was in the 93d year 
of her age." 



16 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

The following anecdote, showing the cause 
and motives of the first emigration of the Car- 
roll family to this country, was related by 
the late venerable and illustrious Charles 
Carroll of Carrollton : 

" It is stated that one of his ancestors was 
secretary to lord Powis, a leading minister 
of James II. Remarking to his lordship one 
day, that he was happy to find that public 
affairs and his majesty's service were pro- 
ceeding so prosperously, the secretary receiv- 
ed for answer c You are quite in the wrong, 
affairs are going on very badly; the king is 
very ill advised.' After pausing a few min- 
utes his lordship thus addressed Mr. Carroll : 
1 Young man, I have a regard for you, and 
would be glad to do you a service — take my 
advice; great changes are at hand: go out to 
Maryland — I will speak to lord Baltimore in 
your favor.' He did so, obtained some gov- 
ernment situation with considerable grants 
of land, and left his family among the largest 
proprietors of the Union." 

John, the subject of this biography, and 
the third son of Daniel and Eleanor Carroll, 
was born at Upper Marlbro' on the 8th of 
January, in the year 1735. 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. . 17 

We have no traces of his boyish days, 
except in traditionary accounts of a promis- 
ing development of genius, and uncommon 
docility of manners and disposition. 

At the very early age of twelve years he 
was sent to a grammar school at Bohemia, 
in Maryland, from which he was soon after- 
wards transferred to the college of St. Omer, 
in French Flanders, under the exclusive di- 
rection of the Jesuits. In this school, so 
justly celebrated for the learning of its pro- 
fessors, and for the indefatigable care and 
assiduity with which they cultivated the 
minds of their pupils, our young American 
became conspicuous for capacity of mind, 
attention to his studies, and the docility and 
kindness of his character. 

After having gone through the usual course 
of a collegiate education, with eminent ad- 
vantage and distinction, during the six years 
he passed within the walls of this institution, 
he was advanced to the study of the higher 
branches of science and literature in a college 
at Liege, under the direction of members of 
the same society. Here he perfected himself 
in these studies, and it w r as in this school that 
he formed the resolution of going through an 
2* 



18 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OP THE 

ecclesiastical course, with a view to the 
priesthood, and to the devoting of himself to 
the service of the Church. 

After having, in consequence, passed 
through the novitiate, he was ordained priest 
in 1769, became a professed father in 1771, 
renouncing beforehand, in favor of his brother, 
Daniel Carroll, esquire, (who died in 1796, 
and was w T ell known throughout the revolu- 
tionary war, and since the adoption of the 
federal constitution, as a member of the high- 
est councils of this nation,) and of his two 
youngest sisters, the estate which had been 
bequeathed to him by his father, who died 
some years before. 

The following sketch of this eminent and 
useful statesman, will, it is deemed, be not 
out of place here, as connected in an intimate 
degree with the subject of our memoir: 

Daniel Carroll, the brother of the subject 
of this sketch, was born at Upper Marlbro' 
in the State of Maryland, on the 22d July, 
1730. 

The excellent attainments and talents of 
Mr. Carroll did not fail to recommend him to 
the favorable notice of his countrymen, as 
soon as the shackles were removed, which 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 19 

had been placed upon the Roman Catholics 
of his native state, by the hand of bigotry 
and intolerance, and they were admitted to 
a free participation of the political distinc- 
tions and emoluments of office, and placed in 
all other respects upon an equal footing with 
the members of other christian denominations. 

He was accordingly elected a member of 
the first senate under the constitution of Ma- 
ryland, immediately after the formation and 
establishment of that constitution, and thence- 
forward was almost constantly and uninter- 
ruptedly employed in the public service till 
a few years before his death — as a member 
of the senate or executive council of Mary- 
land; — one of the delegates in the old con- 
gress, or as one of the members of that state 
in the House of Representatives in the first 
congress under the present constitution of the 
United States. He had been likewise one 
of the delegates of the same state in the 
federal convention of 1787, which framed 
that constitution. 

In all these situations he was eminently 
distinguished by patriotic zeal, solidity and 
discrimination of judgment, the prudence and 
wisdom of his counsels, as well as by an en- 



20 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

tire exemption from all taint of selfishness, 
in reference to the popular favor. To his 
efforts in congress, as much as to those of 
any other member, may justly be ascribed 
the location of the permanent seat of the 
general government at Washington, and at 
the expiration of his term of service in that 
congress, the first under the present consti- 
tution, he was associated by president Wash- 
ington in a commission with the late gov- 
ernor Johnson of Maryland, and Dr. David 
Stewart, of Virginia, for carrying the plan of 
that location into effect. From his advanced 
age and growing infirmities he resigned this 
appointment in a few years, and shortly af- 
terwards his mortal career was closed in 
death. He died in May, 1796, in the 66th 
year of his age. 

According to the usage and discipline of 
the Jesuits, of whose society he had so recent- 
ly become a member, the subject of this me- 
moir was sent back to the college of St. 
Omer, to conduct a professorship in that 
school. After remaining a short time at St. 
Omer, he returned to Liege where he direct- 
ed the studies of the higher classics; and it 
was at the period when he was thus employ- 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 21 

ed, in 1773, that the order for the suppression 
of the Society of Jesus was carried into exe- 
cution, by the expulsion of its members, the 
dispersion of the pupils and the shutting up 
of the college: that of St. Omer and all 
others under the government of the Jesuits 
within the dominions of France, — simulta- 
neously sharing the same fate. 

On this occasion our young ecclesiastic 
wrote an able and eloquent vindication of 
the Society of the charges unjustly brought 
against it by its enemies. It is a subject of 
deep regret that a principal part of this mas- 
terly performance is lost, otherwise it should 
be embodied in this sketch, as well to exhibit 
a brilliant specimen of the genius and erudi- 
tion of the ex-Jesuit, as to remove some por- 
tion of the obloquy which it is so common to 
heap upon that celebrated society. It was 
not deemed safe at the time to print it; but 
there is reason to believe that it was trans- 
lated into different languages, and the manu- 
script copies greatly multiplied ;— that it was 
extensively used, and produced some small 
relaxation in the execution of the rigorous 
orders for the suppression of the society and 
the expulsion of its members, so far at least 



22 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

as related to the colleges of St. Omer and 
Liege. 

The following extract is a brief summary 
of the causes to which he ascribes the sup- 
pression — " These apostolic men, eternal foes 
to vice, whether it appeared in palaces or 
hovels, under regal robes or squalid rags, 
could never be prevailed on to come to terms 
with the wicked and compromise the cause 
of their divine Master. Hence lascivious and 
irreligious courtiers leagued together, per- 
verted the minds of weak and improvident 
monarchs, and formed the abolition combina- 
tion." 

For further elucidation of the same subject, 
we shall add to the above extract the copy of 
a paper of more modern date in his own hand 
writing, found amongst his papers, containing 
a concise account of the means resorted to 
by the Court of Spain to accomplish the sup- 
pression of the Society of Jesuits in the do- 
minions of Austria and France. 

"The Pope always answered the solici- 
tations of the Bourbon ministers, that the 
House of Austria was opposed to the ex- 
tinction — Count Matroni, ambassador from 
Spain at Vienna, having concerted his ma- 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 23 

noeuvre with Prince Kaunitz, (whose cha- 
racter is that of a professed and open 
Deist,) went into the empress queen's cabi- 
net, (he was much in the empress' favor,) 
when she asked him, as usual, concerning the 
health of the king of Spain — Matroni an- 
swered that he was well, but, from his great 
regard for her majesty, much affected at her 
misunderstanding with the Holy See. She 
was startled at this, — declared herself an 
obedient daughter of the Church, and assur- 
ed him that there was no misunderstanding, 
and asked him what he meant — Matroni then 
told her that the Pope wished to destroy the 
Jesuits, but was deterred by her declaring 
that she would oppose and resist the Pope, 
should he attempt it. She declared that she 
had never said so, and that she would in that, 
as in every thing else, obey the decrees of 
the Holy See. Matroni having brought mat- 
ters to this issue, asked her majesty if he 
might communicate this to his Court. — She 
consented. But, says he, madam, the king 
is so much impressed with contrary advices, 
that he will give no credit to my despatches, 
unless your majesty will order your minister 
to give me an official letter to the same pur- 



24 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

port. Go, said she, to Kaunitz, and tell him 
to give it you. Kaunitz was called, the letter 
given, and Matroni immediately sent an ex- 
press to Madrid. From Madrid the original 
official letter of Kaunitz was sent to Rome, 
laid before the Pope, and removed his last 
subterfuge." Father Hussey says he read 
this in Count Matroni's despatches, and a 
subsequent one to and from Rome. 

" In consequence, the brief of dissolution 
was got ready, and sent to France. — D'Ar- 
guillon, the minister of France and creature 
of Spain, carried it to Louis XV., who, in the 
midst of libertinism, respected religion. He 
declared the brief should not be published, 
and ordered D'Arguillon to send an express 
to Rome, that moment, to prevent its being 
issued — D'Arguillon remonstrated, but all in 
vain. He left the king and sent in madame 
de Barri. — She found the king agitated, be- 
gan with asking the cause, reproached him 
for abandoning the House of Bourbon, coaxed 
and cajoled him, and in fifteen minutes got 
the order recalled for sending away the ex- 
press." Father Hussey says he read this de- 
tail in Count Aranda's despatches. Aranda 
was the Spanish ambassador. 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 25 

Upon the subject of the final suppression 
of the Society of Jesus, Mr. Carroll thus 
writes to his brother, Daniel Carroll, Esq., 
under date of Bruges, September 11, 1773: 

"I this day received a few lines from 
Daniel, of July 15, in which he complains 
with much reason of my long silence. My 
mind is at present too full of other things to 
make any apology. After spending part of 
the autumn of 1772 at Naples, and its envi- 
rons, we returned to pass the winter at 
Rome, where I stayed till near the end of 
March, from thence came to Florence, 
Genoa, Tunis, Lyons, Paris, and so to Liege 
and Bruges. I was willing to accept of the 
vacant post of prefect of the sodality here, 
after consigning Mr. Stourton into his father's 
hands about two months ago, that I might 
enjoy some retirement, and consider well in 
the presence of God the disposition I found 
myself in of going to join my relatives in 
Maryland, and in case that disposition con- 
tinued, to get out next spring. But now all 
room for deliberation seems to be over. The 
enemies of the society, and above all the un- 
relenting perseverance of the Spanish and 
Portuguese Ministries, with the passiveness 
3 



26 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

of the court of Vienna, has at length obtained 
their ends : and our so long persecuted, and 
I must add, holy society is no more. God's 
holy will be done, and may his name be 
blessed forever and ever ! This fatal stroke 
was struck on the 21st of July, but was kept 
secret at Rome till the 16th of August, and 
was only made known to us on the 5th of 
September. I am not, and perhaps never 
shall be, recovered from the shock of this 
dreadful intelligence. The greatest blessing 
which in my estimation I could receive from 
God, would be immediate death : but if he 
deny me this, may his holy and adorable de- 
signs on me be wholly fulfilled. Is it possi- 
ble that Divine Providence should permit to 
such an end, a body wholly devoted, and I 
w T ill still aver, with the most disinterested 
charity, in procuring every comfort and ad- 
vantage to their neighbors, whether by 
preaching, teaching, catechizing, missions, 
visiting hospitals, prisons, and every other 
function of spiritual and corporal mercy ? 
Such I have beheld it in every part of my 
travels, the first of all ecclesiastical bodies 
in the esteem and confidence of the faithful, 
and certainly the most laborious. What will 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 27 

become of our flourishing congregations with 
you, and those cultivated by the German 
fathers ? These reflections crowd so fast 
upon me that I almost lose my senses. But 
I will endeavor to suppress them for a few 
moments. You see that I am now my own 
master, and left to my own direction. In re- 
turning to Maryland I shall have the comfort 
of not only being with you, but of being far- 
ther out of the reach of scandal and defama- 
tion, and removed from the scenes of dis- 
tress of many of my dearest friends, whom 
God knows, I shall not be able to relieve. 
I shall therefore most certainly sail for 
Maryland early next spring, if I possibly 
can." 

Speaking of his apprehensions of a fatal 
combination against the society of which he 
was so zealous and attached a member, he 
makes the following remarks in another let- 
ter from Bruges to his brother : 

" Before you receive this letter you will 
have heard of the Pope's death: in human 
appearance, nothing could have happened 
more unfortunate to us, especially in the 
critical moment when an answer was to have 
been given to the memorials of three united 



28 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

courts of the family compact, France, Spain, 
and Naples, requiring the immediate dissolu- 
tion of the society. His Holiness had him- 
self minuted the heads of the answer he in- 
tended to make in a few days, and had de- 
livered it to his ministers to be put into the 
due form. The substance of it was, that no 
worldly consideration, no loss of temporali- 
ties, should ever force him into any measure 
which he could not justify to his awn con- 
science : that the more he saw and knew of 
the Jesuits, the more he was convinced of 
their eminent services to religion, and of the 
falsehood of the imputations charged upon 
them : that he could not therefore acquiesce 
in the proposal made him by the allied courts. 
The answer entered into a much larger de- 
tail than I here mention, and would have 
been a glorious testimony of his Holiness' es- 
teem and affection for the society. How 
matters will go on in the conclave, and after 
the election of the new Pope, Heaven knows. 
Humanly speaking, we have every thing to 
dread from the combination formed against 
us : yet when I reflect on the atrocious false- 
hoods, injustices, cruelties, and mean artifi- 
ces employed against us, I greatly confide 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 29 

that God's providence will not permit our 
dissolution to be effected by such wicked 
means. I know his kingdom is not of this 
world, and that they who seek to do his di- 
vine will, and promote his glory, are not to 
expect a visible interposition in their favor 
on every occasion, or to receive in this life 
an apparent testimony of innocence and di- 
vine approbation." 

In another letter to the same gentleman, 
he speaks of the intrigues at the court of 
France, against the Jesuits, and which were 
crowned with success, soon after the date 
thereof, in 1764, by their expulsion from that 
kingdom, in the following eloquent and touch- 
ing terms : 

" The death of the famous Marchioness de 
Pompadour, will, it is generally believed by 
our French brethren, occasion some great 
change in their circumstances ; so far is cer- 
tain, that they are delivered by this event 
from their greatest enemy, I mean the most 
powerful one, and who, by her interest and 
influence over the king of France, could more 
easily than any one else, prevail upon him to 
view tamely the proceedings against the Je- 
suits, which she underhandedly encouraged 



30 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

by all the arts, which cunning and power 
could put into her hands. The Jesuits ground 
their hopes upon the declared attachment of 
all the royal family to their interests, upon 
the intimate connection and intelligence sub- 
sisting between the king and his queen and 
children, since the great lady's death, upon 
the zealous intercessions of the bishops, all 
the prime nobility, and every order of magis- 
trates in the different cities and towns where 
the Jesuits were heretofore established. If 
we add to this the general discontent that 
has ensued upon the appointment and con- 
duct both in morals and literary pursuits of 
the newly installed masters for the education 
of youth, we cannot absolutely pronounce 
these hopes to have an object merely chime- 
rical : but I will own to you that the irreso- 
lute behaviour which has appeared so much 
in the French government, on many late oc- 
casions, makes me apprehend that vigor will 
be wanting to bring about so desirable a re- 
volution, as it is likely to meet with great op- 
position from several parliaments, whose 
principles are very imcompatible with those 
the Jesuits would endeavor to maintain 
and propagate in case of their restoration. 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 31 

Thus you see the prospect before us gives 
but little cause to be content with this 
world, whilst past sufferings have served to 
strengthen, if possible, our belief in another 
better and more equitable than this. And 
indeed to a man lying under the public im- 
putation of crimes, for which his own con- 
science clears him, and who is persuaded of 
the existence of a Deity, I know no proof of an 
immortality more sensible and comfortable, 
than this reflection, that an all powerful and 
infinitely just Being cannot consistently with 
those attributes, refuse him in another life 
that justice, which passion piid iniquity have 
denied him in this. To pretend as some an- 
cient and modern unbelievers have done, 
that virtue and a good conscience is its own 
reward, argues very little knowledge of the 
human heart, for many a hardy villain, from 
a natural alacrity and cheerfulness of mind, 
and possessed of worldly enjoyments, seldom 
finds, at least for any long time, his remorse 
to prey much upon him, or disturb his plea- 
sures, whilst several good men on the con- 
trary, from an unhappy temper or sickly con- 
stitution, but rarely feel any even intellectu- 
al enjoyments. I cannot otherwise account 



32 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OP THE 

for my having fallen into this train of philo- 
sophising which I hope you will excuse, than 
because I have habituated myself to it, as 
the best relief amidst so many affecting and 
melancholy scenes." 

When the suppression was completely ef- 
fected he retired to England, where he acted 
some time as the secretary to the former 
members of the society born in the British 
dominions, in the remonstrances which they 
made to the government of France on the 
subject of the property belonging to the two 
colleges of St. Omer and Liege, most of his 
brethren, w r ho had been attached to these 
colleges, having also retired to that country. 

Being intimately acquainted with and 
known to most of the Catholic nobility and 
gentry of England, he was prevailed upon by 
Lord Stourton, a highly respectable noble- 
man of that religion, to make the continental 
tour with his son, in the character of gov- 
ernor or preceptor. 

The journal which he kept on this occa- 
sion, is remarkable for its just and wise re- 
flections, is replete with the classical taste 
and erudition of the writer, and indulges in 
a free criticism upon the journals of former 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 33 

travellers over the same ground.* While en- 
gaged in this tour, he wrote likewise a suc- 
cinct history of England, for the use of his 
pupil, in the form of a dialogue, principally to 
guard his young mind against the general ir- 
religious tendency of some, and the particu- 
larly hostile tendency of other writings, upon 
the same subject, against the Catholic faith. 
On his return to England, he was solicited 
by the then Lord Arundel, another Catholic 
nobleman, to reside in his family, as well for 
the purpose of administering in the character 
of chaplain, the consolations of a persecuted 
and oppressed religion to the members of 
that illustrious house, still steadfast in the 
faith of its ancestors, as to afford to them the 
singular advantages and enjoyment of his 
society : and being at liberty to do so, by the 
extinction of the society of Jesuits under 
whose banners he had enlisted, and to w 7 hose 
orders he would have paid a ready obedience 
in encountering the toils and dangers and 
privations of the most forlorn mission, he ac- 
cepted the invitation which had been given to 
him, and became a resident in the family of 
Lord Arundel. In the hospitable retreat of 

* For Journal, see Appendix, 



34 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

Wardour castle, the seat of his noble patron, 
adorned by the virtues which shone forth so 
conspicuously in the lives of Lord and Lady 
Arundel, the resort of the best society of 
England, the chaplain of the family was pre- 
eminently distinguished by the spontaneous 
attention and kindness which a respect for 
his talents, accomplishments, and attainments 
never failed to inspire : but amidst these fas- 
cinating circumstances he did not for a mo- 
ment lose sight of the evangelical character 
with which he was invested, nor suffer the 
homage paid to his worth and talents to 
weaken in the smallest degree the spirit of 
true humility which had been deeply im- 
printed in his heart. 

After a residence of a year or two at War- 
dour castle, he was warned by the state of 
the differences between England and her 
colonies to turn his attention to his own coun- 
try, and to avail himself of the first opportu- 
nity that might occur for returning to his na- 
tive land from which he had been so long se- 
parated, but towards which he ever enter- 
tained that warm and active attachment so 
often afterwards displayed during the course 
of his long and useful career : his detention 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 35 

in Europe having been protracted by a la- 
tent hope, very precious to his heart, that the 
society of Jesus might be re-established in 
the Catholic states of the continent and their 
dependencies. 

He accordingly embarked in one of the last 
ships that sailed for the Potomac before the 
commencement of the Revolutionary war, 
and landed at Richland, in Virginia, the seat 
of William Brent, Esq., who had married his 
second sister. 

To those w 7 ho respect the finest feelings of 
the human heart, which impel us by a mys- 
terious sympathy to such as are connected 
with us by the ties of blood, it is needless to 
remark, that the scene which ensued was a 
joyful and an interesting one. Mr. Carroll 
found himself surrounded on a sudden bv the 
numerous families of his two sisters, the 
oldest one being also married to a gentleman 
of the same name and neighborhood, and a 
near relative of the husband of his second 
sister, to Robert Brent, Esq., one of his earli- 
est acquaintances and friends, his school fel- 
low and companion at Bohemia, and his 
classmate and fellow student at the college 
of St. Omer. In a heart like that of Mr. 



36 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

Carroll, such a scene was peculiarly calcu- 
lated to awaken the kindest emotions. In 
no period of his existence abroad did distance 
ever sever him in affection, nor avocation or 
society withdraw him, from a correspondence 
with his family in this country. In a letter 
which he wrote to his brother-in-law, Mr. 
Robert Brent, he says : " I know not what ef- 
fect absence may have upon the minds of 
other persons : but upon mine it increases 
the solicitude which I feel for the well being 
of those with whom I am always connected." 
And there is not one of his relatives surviv- 
ing who cannot call to mind some particu- 
lar token of affection and kindness, received 
at his hands, and all are bound to remember 
with gratitude the lessons of wisdom and 
truth which he constantly gave them and en- 
forced by his example. 

With such strong natural affections, and 
with social propensities of corresponding en- 
ergy, those only, who were well acquainted 
with him, can estimate, in its due proportion, 
the extent of the sacrifice which he offered 
up, when he became a Jesuit, and bound him- 
self by the solemn obligations of a vow to 
obey the mandates of his superiors, whither- 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 37 

soever they might carry him, into whatsoever 
remote or inhospitable climates beyond the 
reach of kindred or friends or the abodes of 
even civilized man. 

After spending two days with the families 
of his sisters in Virginia, he hastened to the 
residence of his mother in Montgomery coun- 
ty, Maryland, whither she had retired with 
her tw T o youngest daughters, soon after the 
death of his father, eager to evince in per- 
son, the love and respect which he had so 
long cherished in absence, for this best of 
mothers and women : and to greet with cor- 
dial affection and kindness his surviving bro- 
ther, already mentioned (the first having died 
in infancy), and his two other sisters. 

After the usual endearments of such meet- 
ings, he lost no time in entering upon the 
active exercise of the duties of the priesthood, 
collected together the dispersed Roman Ca- 
tholics residing in Montgomery county, uni- 
ted them in congregations which he inces- 
santly watched over and instructed, both by 
word and example. In a little time he ex- 
tended his attention to the families of his two 
sisters, settled in Stafford county, Virginia, 
and to the Roman Catholics in their neigh- 



38 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

borhood : for the Catholic religion having 
been professed and practised in the family of 
the ancestors of his brothers-in-law from the 
earliest settlement of that county, though 
at some periods with great risk and hazard, 
— other families of that communion had been 
drawn to that neighborhood, who, together 
formed a small congregation, that was occa- 
sionally visited by a priest from Maryland, 
who, on these occasions, celebrated mass and 
administered the sacraments of the Church 
in the house of the Brent family at Aquia. 

While he continued in the care of these 
congregations they afforded gratifying proofs 
of the moral and religious effects produced 
upon the character, habits, and manners of 
the people composing them, by the influence 
of the virtues, the talents, and admonitions of 
their active and zealous pastor, all combined 
for their instruction and edification. With 
the blessing of God, the congregation thus 
established by the zeal and industry of Mr. 
Carroll in Montgomery county, after having 
afforded to its pious founder during his life- 
time, every assurance of increasing useful- 
ness and prosperity, has continued with 
steady progress under the zealous guidance 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 39 

of good pastors, to perpetuate the advantages 
of divine worship to a growing community. 

The little congregation at Aquia, owing to 
the emigration of the Brent family, and 
other local causes, has unfortunately not been 
kept together, and the efforts of its clergy- 
men, were not crowned with permanent suc- 
cess. 

At this period he was called to the perform- 
ance of other duties, by which his congrega- 
tions were to undergo the temporary loss of 
his ministry and services. His talents and 
virtues had given him a high reputation, and 
his zeal and good wishes in the cause of his 
native land, now engaged in its struggle for 
independence were well known. These cir- 
cumstances, added to the consideration, that 
he was a minister of the religion professed 
by the people of Canada, and familiarly ac- 
quainted with their language, habits, and 
character, induced a solicitation on the part 
of the commissioners, whom Congress had 
appointed from their own body, that he 
would accompany them on their mission to 
Canada. The gentlemen charged with this 
important and delicate duty, were Dr. Ben- 
jamin Franklin, Samuel Chase, and Charles 



40 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OP THE 

Carroll of Carrollton, (the last named being 
intimately connected with him by the ties 
of relationship and early association at the 
same schools in this country and in Europe.) 
To this request, Mr. Carroll acceded, with 
the view, so far as he was to have an agen- 
cy, to induce the inhabitants of that country, 
who professed the same religion with him- 
self, to remain neutral, and to refrain from 
taking up arms on the side of Great Britain : 
— further than this he deemed it incompati- 
ble with his character as a minister of reli- 
gion to interfere. 

The mission proved unsuccessful, and it is 
believed that the commissioners were not 
suffered to proceed further than Montreal. 

The following letter from Mr. Carroll to 
his mother, dated Montreal, May 1st, 1776, 
descriptive of his journey thither, may prove 
interesting to our readers. He says : " We 
have at length come to the end of our long 
and tedious journey, after meeting with seve- 
ral delays on account of the impassable con- 
dition of the lakes : and it is with a longing 
desire of measuring back the same ground, 
that I now take up my pen to inform you of 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 41 

my being in good health, thank God, and of 
wishing you a perfect enjoyment of yours. 

" We came hither the night before last and 
were received at the landing by General Ar- 
nold, and a great body of officers, gentry, &c. 
and saluted by firing of cannon, and other mi- 
litary honors. Being conducted to the gen- 
eral's house, we were served with a glass of 
wine, while people were crowding in to pay 
their compliments, which ceremony being 
over, we were shown into another apartment, 
and unexpectedly met in it a large assem- 
bly of ladies, most of them French. After 
drinking tea, and sitting some time, we went 
to an elegant supper, which was followed 
with the singing of the ladies, which proved 
very agreeable, and would have been more 
so, if we had not been so much fatigued with 
our journey. The next day was spent in re- 
ceiving visits, and dining in a large company, 
with whom we were pressed to sup, but ex- 
cused ourselves in order to write letters, of 
which this is one, and will be finished and 
dated to-morrow morning. 

"I owe you a journal of our adventures 
from Philadelphia to this place. When we 

came to Brunswick in the Jersey govern- 

4* 



42 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

ment, we overtook the Baron de W , the 

Prussian general who had left Philadelphia 
the day before us. Though I had frequently 
seen him before, yet he was so disguised in 
furs, that I scarce knew him, and never be- 
held a more laughable object in my life. 
Like other Prussian officers, he appears to me 
as a man who knows little of polite life, and 
yet has picked up so much of it in his passage 
through France, as to make a most awkward 
appearance. When we came to New York, 
it was no more the gay, polite place it used 
to be esteemed: but was become almost a 
desert, unless for the troops. The people 
were expecting a bombardment, and had 
therefore removed themselves and their ef- 
fects out of town: and the other side the 
troops were working at the fortifications with 
the utmost activity. After spending some 
disagreeable days at this place, we proceeded 
by water up to Albany, about 160 miles. At 
our arrival there, we were met by General 
Schuyler, and entertained by him, during our 
stay, with great politeness and very genteely. 
I wrote to you before, of our agreeable situa- 
tion at Saratoga, and of our journey from 
thence over lake George to Ticonderoga : 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 43 

from this latter place we embarked on the 
great lake of Champlain, about 140 miles to 
St. John. We had a passage of three days 
and a half. We always came to in the night 
time. Passengers generally encamp in the 
woods, making a covering of the boughs of 
trees, and large fires at their feet. But as 
we had a good awning to our boat, and had 
brought with us good beds, and plenty of bed 
clothes, I chose to sleep on board." 

Mr. Carroll having thus given proof of his 
patriotism by abandoning for a time the 
humble but useful performance of his clerical 
duties, to devote himself to the service of his 
country, in the way which he deemed conge- 
nial to his obligations as a clergyman, and 
exposing himself to the risks and hardships 
of a long and fatiguing journey, continued 
by word and example during and after that 
struggle which ended in the glorious eman- 
cipation of this country from a foreign yoke, 
to assert and inculcate those liberal and en- 
larged political principles which are ever the 
cherished guides and mentors of great and 
good men. We find him ever speaking in 
warm and patriotic terms in his voluminous 
correspondence with his esteemed friend and 



44 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

classmate, the Rev. Charles Plowden, and 
which we deem it well here to introduce. 

" You tell me that in my last I was afraid 
of entering into politics; but that you will 
force me into the subject. Indeed, my dear 
Charles, I had no such fears about me. I 
have the happiness to live under a govern- 
ment very different from that I have been 
just talking of (the Austrian); and I have 
never had any cause to fear speaking my 
sentiments with the utmost freedom. But 
when I was writing to you, I had so many 
other subjects nearer to my heart to talk of, 
that I suppose I left them to the public 
papers. You have adopted the language of 
some of the prints on your side the water, 
by representing us under imperious leaders, 
and the trammels of France; but alas! our 
imperious leaders, by whom I suppose you 
mean the congress, were at all times amena- 
ble to our popular assemblies, elected by 
thern every year, often turned out of their 
seats, and so little envied, that as their ex- 
penses were often unavoidably greater than 
their profits, it has at all times been a diffi- 
cult matter to get men disinterested and 
patriotic enough to accept the charge — and 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 45 

as to the trammels of France, we certainly 
never have worn her chains, but have treated 
with her as equals, have experienced from 
her the greatest magnanimity and modera- 
tion, and have repaid it with an honorable 
fidelity to our engagements. By both of us 
proceeding on these principles, the war has 
been brought to an issue, with which, if you 
are pleased, all is well, for we are certainly 
satisfied. 77 

He says in a subsequent letter, " If your 
other kind letters never came to hand, you 
have only to blame the unsleeping avidity 
of your own cruizers, whom I should call 
pirates, were I inclined to follow your exam- 
ple of abusing the political measures of our 
adversaries. For, since the object of the 
war, on your side, the right of parliamentary 
taxation, is now confessedly, and by every 
moderate man on both continents, acknow- 
ledged to have been unjust, surely every 
measure to attain that object must likewise 
have been unjust; and consequently your 
cruizers with all their commissions were no- 
thing more than pirates. Thus much to re- 
taliate for your stroke at our faithless leaders 



46 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

and faithless allies, after which we will be 
done with politics. 77 

Speaking about the younger Chatham, he 
uses the following strong and patriotic lan- 
guage: — "I sincerely rejoice, that the son of 
my favorite, the late Lord Chatham, conducts 
himself with such ability and integrity. You 
did not expect so much, perhaps, from an 
American ; and indeed, we should be excus- 
able, (if not as Christians, at least politic- 
ally), for not bearing you much good will, in 
return for all the lies and misrepresentations 
which many of your soured and indignant 
countrymen are every day coining about us. 
You have certainly cramped our trade by 
some regulations, not merely selfish but re- 
vengeful. Your merchants will find, that 
without warfare we have immense resources, 
and the means of redress in our power ; as 
soon as the establishment of our new federal 
government will allow those means to be 
called forth. 77 

Mr. Carroll hastened back from this unsuc- 
cessful mission in Canada to his mother's 
house, where he had resided since his return 
to America, and entered again upon the ac- 
tive exercise of the functions of his ministry. 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 47 

From this period till some years after the 
termination of the revolutionary war, he was 
principally employed in the service of the se- 
veral congregations before spoken of, which 
he may be said in a great measure to have 
formed, alternately and periodically visiting 
and instructing them in the exalted duties of 
Christianity, and enforcing the principles of 
piety and charity, which he taught and incul- 
cated, by his own persuasive example; and in 
directing and regulating the concerns of his 
respected mother's property, — whilst he con 
tributed, in an eminent degree, by his respect- 
ful and affectionate demeanor towards her, 
by his kindness and attention to all others, 
and by the irresistible charm of his conver- 
sation, company, and manners, to impart to 
the family circle of her house the highest 
degree of interest and to secure to it the full- 
est share of domestic happiness. He availed 
himself of all the moments left from the 
above employments, and from the time devo- 
ted to acts of private devotion, for which, 
under all circumstances, he always set apart 
a large portion, to add to the abundant stock 
of information which he already possessed, 
such as could be derived from a review of 



48 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

ancient literature, and a close and regular 
inspection of the public journals, miscellanies 
and literary works of the day, and to recipro- 
cate, as he always did, with peculiar grace 
and kindness, all the offices of friendly and 
liberal intercourse with a large and respect- 
able society. 

He was some years afterwards drawn 
into a religious controversy with the Rev. 
Charles Wharton, who, from being a priest 
of the Roman Catholic Church, and educated 
at the same schools with himself, had be- 
come a minister of the Church of England. 
Mr. Wharton on that occasion having ad- 
dressed the Roman Catholics of Worcester, 
in England, of whom he had been the chap- 
lain, assigning the motives of his recantation, 
and impugning the doctrines of the church 
he had abandoned, the Rev. Dr. Carroll 
wrote and published an address to the Ro- 
man Catholics of the U. States in answer. 

It is not our purpose to enter into a critical 
examination of the arguments on either side 
of this controversy, nor are we at all quali- 
fied for the task; but we are particularly 
called upon by the occasion to state the mo- 
tives inducing, and the circumstances under 



THE MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 49 

which the address to the Roman Catholics 
in the United States was written and pub- 
lished, as we shall do in the author's own 
words : and to add, that high as was his re- 
putation before, it was greatly enhanced by 
that publication, not only with the Roman 
Catholics of the United States for whom it 
was specially written and published, but with 
liberal minds and enlightened individuals of 
other religious communities : and that, as far 
as it was read by such, it tended greatly to 
remove strong and early impressions, and to 
exhibit the religion of the author in new and 
advantageous lights. Subjoined to these ex- 
tracts will be found so much of Mr. Whar- 
ton's reply, as was intended for an answer to 
the paragraphs of the address quoted. 

Extracts from pages 4 and 5 of the Address 
to the Roman Catholics of the United States 
of America. 

" You will not now be at a loss to account 
for the occasion of the present address. A 
letter to the Roman Catholics of the city of 
Worcester in England has been published 
here by one of their late chaplains : and had 
all the copies of it been transmitted to those 
5 



50 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

for whom professedly it is intended, I should 
not dedicate to animadversions on it, the few 
moments of leisure left me from other em- 
ployments incident to my charge and profes- 
sion, especially with the scanty materials of 
which I am possessed : for I am destitute of 
many sources of information, and unable to 
refer to authorities w r hich I presume to have 
been collected on the other side with great 
industry. By the chaplain's own account, 
he has long meditated a separation from us : 
and during that time, he had the opportuni- 
ties of resorting to the repositories of science 
so common and convenient in Europe. 

" But the letter not only being printed 
here, but circulating widely through the 
country, a regard to your information and the 
tranquillity of your consciences requires some 
notice to be taken of it : for the ministers of 
religion should always remember, that it is 
their duty as well to enlighten the under- 
standing, as improve the morals of mankind. 
You are the salt of the earth, Matt. v. 13, said 
Christ to his apostles, to preserve men from 
the corruptions of vice and immorality : and 
you are the light of the world, Matt. v. 14, to 
instruct and inform it." 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 51 

Extract from pages 113 and 114 of the same 
Address. 

" I have now gone through a task, painful 
in every point of view in which I could con- 
sider it. To write for the public eye, on 
any occasion whatever, is neither agreeable 
to my feelings or suited to my leisure or op- 
portunities : that it is likewise dispropor- 
tioned to my abilities, my readers, I doubt 
not, will soon discover. But if reduced to the 
necessity of publishing, I would wish that my 
duty led me to any species of composition, 
rather than that of religious controversy. — 
Mankind have conceived such a contempt for 
it, that an author cannot entertain a hope of 
enjoying those gratifications, which in treat- 
ing other subjects, may support his spirits 
and enliven his imagination. Much less 
could I have a prospect of these incitements 
in the prosecution of my present undertak- 
ing. I could not forget in the beginning, 
progress and conclusion of it, that the habits 
of thinking, the prejudices, perhaps even the 
passions of many of my readers, w 7 ould be set 
against all the arguments I could offer : and 
that the weaknesses, the errors, the absur- 



52 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

dities of the writer would be imputed to the 
errors and absurdity of his religion. But of 
all considerations, the most painful was, that 
I had to combat him, with whom I had been 
connected with an intercourse of friendship 
and mutual good offices, and in connection 
with whom I hoped to have consummated my 
course of our common ministry in the service 
of virtue and religion. But when I found 
that he had not only abandoned our faith and 
communion, but had imputed to us doc- 
trines foreign to our belief, and having a na- 
tural tendency to imbitter against us the 
minds of our fellow-citizens, I felt an anguish 
too keen for description : and perhaps the 
chaplain will experience a similar sentiment 
when he comes coolly to reflect on this in- 
stance of his conduct. It did not become the 
friend of toleration to misinform, and to sow 
in minds so misinformed the seeds of religious 
animosity. 

"Under all these distressful feelings, one 
consideration alone relieved me in writing; 
and that was the hope of vindicating our re- 
ligion to your own selves at least, and pre- 
serving the steadfastness of your faith. But 
even this prospect should not have induced 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 53 

me to engage in the controversy, if I could 
fear that it would disturb the harmony now- 
subsisting amongst all Christians in this 
country, so blessed with civil and religious 
liberty; which if we have the wisdom and 
temper to preserve, America may come to 
exhibit a proof to the world, that general 
and equal toleration, by giving a free circu- 
lation to fair argument, is the most effectual 
method to bring all denominations of Chris- 
tians to an unity of faith. 77 

Extract from pages 96 and 97 of a The Reply 
to an Address to the Roman Catholics of the 
United States of America.' 1 '' 

In the reply of Mr. Wharton, the following 
personal allusions to his antagonist are not 
irrelevant to the subject of this sketch. 

" Before the chaplain takes a final leave of 
the public on these matters, which he most 
sincerely wishes to do at present, he must 
beg its attention for a moment to the most 
material accusation thrown out in the ad- 
dress. He is accused of imputing doctrines 
to the Roman Catholics foreign to their be- 
lief and having a natural tendency to imbit- 
ter against them the minds of their fellow 
5* 



54 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

citizens." He is accused of " misinforming, 
and of sowing in minds so misinformed, the 
seeds of religious animosity." — (Address p. 
114.) "The Rev. gentleman could not have 
wounded his former friend in a more tender 
part. At such an attack he also felt an an- 
guish too keen for description, — for such accu- 
sations coming from him, must extinguish 
every spark of good will towards the chap- 
lain which may still be lurking among his 
former connections. They go to alienate the 
esteem of his recent friends, by holding him 
out as a disturber of the public peace, as an 
enemy to his country. — Did the Rev. gen- 
tleman perceive the natural tendency of such 
a censure, or could he think the chaplain de- 
served it ? The Rev. gentleman might have 
known him better. There was a time when 
he honored him with his confidence and es- 
teem, when he condescended to become the 
depository of his little concerns ; at an early 
period of life, he kindly took him by the hand, 
and led him through the paths of honor and 
of virtue ; his lessons were always those of 
friendship and of wisdom : from these flowed 
that sentiment of universal benevolence which 
the chaplain deems the most precious he pos- 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 55 

sesses. Could the Rev. gentleman be igno- 
rant of the growth of a plant, which he him- 
self had nourished in the heart of his friend, 
and which he must have observed to flourish 
with a luxuriancy nearly approaching to en- 
thusiasm ? It was this sentiment that ban- 
ished every word from his letter which could 
wound the feelings of the most delicate Ro- 
man Catholic : this made him distinguish be- 
tween their persons and opinions, and pre- 
vented a dereliction of some of the latter from 
impairing the social affections which he 
cherished for the former. Far from wishing 
to sow the seeds of religious animosity in the 
minds of his countrymen, he would make 
every sacrifice to eradicate them forever : far 
from wishing to imbitter the minds of their f el- 
low citizens against the Roman Catholics of 
America, he is proud to see them elevated to 
that equal respectability, to which, as zealous 
supporters of their country's freedom, and as 
a christian society, they are essentially en- 
titled : far from harboring any religious ani- 
mosity or narrowness of sentiment, he only 
wishes for opportunities to show how much 
he despises them : far from abandoning the 
cause of virtue and religion, as the Address 



56 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

seems to insinuate — (p. 114) he means to 
exert his slender abilities and consummate 
the course of his ministry in the service of 
both." 

The Roman Catholic clergy in the United 
States had been, heretofore, under the imme- 
diate government of an ecclesiastical au- 
thority, originally established in England by 
the Holy See, for the management of the con- 
cerns of the church in the British provinces 
of North America : but from the epoch of the 
establishment of American Independence, 
they had entertained the wish of being plac- 
ed under the jurisdiction of some individual 
of their own body. They had accordingly 
made an application to this effect to the 
Pope, and had unanimously nominated and 
recommended the Rev. Mr. Carroll for this 
purpose : and in conformity with their wishes 
he was appointed by the Holy See, Apostolic 
Vicar General over the Roman Catholic 
Church in the United States. Upon receiving 
the appointment, he removed to the city of 
Baltimore. 

The Roman Catholic clergy were influ- 
enced, in the application which they made to 
the Holy See, as well by a regard to the more 






MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 57 

convenient organization and government of 
their church, as by a desire to adapt the con- 
dition of it, as nearly as might be, to the new 
political one of the United States. 

The Rev. Mr. Carroll, alluding to this step 
on the part of the American clergy, uses the 
following language in a letter to his friend, the 
Rev. Mr. Plowden, dated September 26, 1783: 

"Our gentlemen here continue, as when 
I last wrote. We are endeavoring to estab- 
lish some regulations tending to perpetuate 
a succession of laborers in the vineyard, to 
preserve their morals, to prevent idleness, and 
to secure an equitable and frugal administra- 
tion of our temporals. An immense field is 
opened to the zeal of apostolic men. Uni- 
versal toleration throughout this immense 
country, and innumerable Roman Catholics 
going and ready to go into the new regions 
bordering on the Mississippi, perhaps the finest 
in the world, and impatiently clamorous for 
clergymen to attend them." 

We deem it appropriate, and intimately 
connected with our subject, to insert the fol- 
lowing notice on the establishment of the 
Roman Catholic religion in this country, be- 
ginning with its introduction, and concluding 



58 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OP THE 

with the epoch above referred to. This notice 
is stated by the Rev. Charles Constantine 
Pise, the editor of the Metropolitan, to have 
been originally written by Archbishop Car- 
roll, and translated into the language in 
which he found it. The article appeared in 
the March number of 1830, and is as follows : 

" Towards the end of the reign of James I. 
king of England, who died in 1625, the Ca- 
tholics, oppressed by the penal laws of that 
kingdom, sought after an asylum from the 
persecution which they suffered at home. 
Lord Baltimore, a Catholic, obtained from the 
king a grant of all those lands which now 
form the state of Maryland. This grant was 
confirmed to him by a charter issued in form 
immediately after the succession of Charles 
I, to the throne of his father."* 

By this same charter, the king granted to 
all who should emigrate to the new Province, 
the liberty of exercising their religion, and 
the rights of citizens. A great number of 
Catholics, and especially the descendants of 
ancient families, quitted England, and settled 

* By Charles, the name of Maryland was given to 
this new province, in honor of his queen, Henrietta 
Maria, daughter of Henry IV. 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 59 

in America, towards the year 1630 (1634), 
under the conduct of Lord Baltimore. With 
them came Father Andrew White, an 
English Jesuit. This band of emigrants 
chose for their residence a district of country 
near the junction of the Potomac and St. 
Mary's river : the latter afterwards gave its 
name to the first town that was built there, 
and which continued to be the capital of the 
country, during seventy or eighty years. 

" Father White finding himself unequal to 
the duties which pressed upon him, returned 
to Europe, in order to procure missionaries : 
and from the very imperfect memoirs before 
me, it appears, that he brought over with 
him Fathers Capley, Harkey, and Perret. 
Their principal residence was a place which 
they called St. Inigo, a Spanish word, which 
signifies Ignatius. They acquired there a 
considerable tract of land, a part of which is 
still in the possession of the Jesuits." 

All historians, Protestants as well as Ca- 
tholics, speak in favorable terms of the first 
Catholic emigrants, who faithfully observed 
the laws of justice, and by their humane de- 
portment, gained the confidence of the In- 
dians. Not an inch of land did they take by 



60 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

violence from the aboriginal inhabitants, but 
they purchased a large district, and honora- 
bly confined themselves within the limits 
traced out in the charter, in so much that 
neither fraud nor bloodshed disgraced the 
birth of this rising colony. 

In proportion as it increased, (and its pro- 
gress was rapid), the heads of the establish- 
ment advanced into the country, accompa- 
nied by some clergymen, who, for their sub- 
sistence, and that of their successors, made 
several acquisitions of land. 

Towards the year 1640, a design was 
formed to carry the gospel to the Indians of 
the neighboring parts. In the MS. which 
was lent me, I find that the provincial of the 
Jesuits wrote this year, to the young men at 
Liege, exhorting them to consecrate their ser- 
vices to this difficult and perilous enterprise. 
In consequence of this invitation, more than 
twenty requested, in urgent language, to be 
associated in the new mission, but from what 
I can learn from contemporary documents, 
it does not appear that they ever crossed the 
ocean : prevented, in all probability, by the 
influence of the Protestants, who inhabited 
the district of Virginia : and who saw, with 






MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 61 

a jealous eye, the incomparably better un- 
derstanding that existed between the Catho- 
lics and the Indians, than between themselves 
and the tribes around them. Add to this the 
troubles which arose the same year (1640) 
in England, and ended in the deposition and 
decapitation of Charles 1. in 1649. The in- 
credible hatred which the dominant party of 
that kingdom entertained against the Ca- 
tholics, and the umbrage which was taken 
by the factious, at any interprise that could 
further the promotion of the Catholic religion, 
rendered it necessary for the emigrants to 
break off all communications with the In- 
dians. 

As long as Cromwell was in power, the 
Catholics of Maryland were cruelly harass- 
ed. Lord Baltimore was removed from the 
government, the Catholics were excluded 
from all offices of trust which they held be- 
fore, and the clergy were reduced to the ne- 
cessity of exercising their functions in secret 
and with the greatest circumspection. 

From this epoch, I cannot discover any 

steps taken to diffuse the knowledge of the 

gospel among the Indians. Before the death 

of Cromwell, it is probable that they removed 

6 



62 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

into the interior at a very great distance, and 
in Maryland, there were hardly clergymen 
enough to discharge the duties towards the 
Catholics. The power and influence of the 
Protestants, supported by the English govern- 
ment, and favored by the colonies that sur- 
rounded them, had greatly increased : and 
the jealousy, formerly occasioned on the part 
of the Catholics by that correspondence with 
the Indians, was still alive. 

After the restoration of Charles II., Mary- 
land again flourished under the genial gov- 
ernment of Lord Baltimore and his represen- 
tatives. Pious establishments were formed, 
and the clergymen were scattered through 
the different sections of the province. They 
subsisted not on the contributions of the 
faithful, but on the products of the lands 
which they had obtained. 

But after the revolution which followed in 
England, the Catholics were again deprived 
of public offices, and of the exercise of their 
religion, contrary to the privileges granted 
in their charter. In consequence of this in- 
tolerance, Lord Baltimore would again have 
been stript of his authority, had he not un- 
fortunately yielded to the times, and con- 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 63 

formed to the Protestant religion. From this 
era, a tax was levied on all the colonists with- 
out distinction, for the support of the minis- 
ters of the Anglican Church. Many attempts 
were made to enforce the penal laws : and if 
they were not generally carried into execu- 
tion, but only in certain places, and that too 
by intervals, it was according to all appear- 
ances, less through a spirit of toleration, than 
through policy. The most distinguished fa- 
milies, impatient of the restrictions, and in- 
duced by the example of Lord Baltimore, 
forsook the Catholic Church. By this means 
the Protestant party became strengthened : 
the seat of government was transferred from 
St. Mary's to Annapolis, where the Protest- 
ants were more numerous ; and the Catho- 
lics, oppressed and persecuted, were reduced 
to poverty and contempt. 

Notwithstanding these misfortunes, several 
congregations existed in the province, with 
resident priests; and others, which were oc- 
casionally visited by the missionaries. But 
they were so removed and dispersed, that a 
great number of families could not assist at 
mass, and receive instructions, but once in 
the month ; and though pains were taken by 



64 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

the pious heads of families to instruct their 
children, it must have been done but imper- 
fectly. Among the poor, many could not 
read, and those who could, were without 
books, to procure which it was necessary 
to send to England : and the laws against 
printers and sellers of Catholic books, were 
extremely rigorous. It is surprising that, not- 
withstanding all these difficulties, there were 
still so many Catholics in Maryland who 
were regular in their habits, and at peace 
with all their neighbors. The propriety of 
their conduct was a subject of edification to 
all, and continued to be so, until the new 
emigrants from foreign parts introduced a li- 
centiousness of manners, which exposed the 
Catholic religion to the reproach of its ene- 
mies. 

Near the residences of the clergy, and on 
the lands belonging to them, small chapels 
w r ere built, but few elsewhere : so that it was 
necessary to say mass in private houses. The 
people contributed nothing towards the ex- 
penses of the clergy, w T ho, poor as they were, 
had to provide for their own support, for the 
decoration, &c. of the altars, and for their tra- 
vels from place to place. They demanded 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 65 

nothing, so long as the produce of their lands 
could suffice for their maintenance. 

Towards the year 1730, Father Grayson, 
a Jesuit (all the clergymen, it should be re- 
marked, who labored in the colonies, were 
Jesuits), went from Maryland to Philadel- 
phia, and laid the foundation of the Catholic 
religion in that city. He resided there until 
the year 1750. Long before his death, he 
built the chapel near the Presbytery (St. 
Joseph's) and formed a numerous congrega- 
tion, which has continued to increase to the 
present day. 

He was succeeded by Father Harding, 
whose memory is still in benediction in that 
city, and under whose auspices, and the un- 
tiring energies of whose zeal, the beautiful 
church of St. Mary's was erected. 

In the year 1741 two German Jesuits were 
sent to Pennsylvania, for the purpose of in- 
structing the German emigrants who had set- 
tled in that province. These were Father 
Schneider, a Bavarian, and Father Wapeler, 
a Hollander — men full of zeal and prudence. 
The former was particularly gifted with a 
talent for business, and possessed, says the 
MS. before me, " consummate prudence and 
6* 



66 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

intrepid courage.' 7 The latter, after having 
labored eight years in America, during which 
he converted many, was in consequence of 
his bad health, constrained to return to Eu- 
rope. He was the founder of the establish- 
ment now called Conewago. Father Schnei- 
der formed several congregations in Pennsyl- 
vania, built the church at Goshenhoppen, and 
propagated the Catholic religion around that 
country. Every month, he visited the Ger- 
mans who lived in Philadelphia, until the 
time when he judged it expedient to establish 
a resident German priest in that city. The 
gentleman chosen to fill that post, was the 
Reverend Father Farmer, a distinguished 
and highly respected personage, wiio some 
years before, had arrived in America, and 
been stationed at Lancaster, where his life 
w r as truly apostolical. It was about the 
year 1760, that he took possession of this new 
appointment. " No one can be ignorant," 
remarks my MS. " of the labors which were 
undergone by this servant of God." His me- 
mory is in veneration among all who knew 
him, or have heard of his merit. He continu- 
ed to be a model for all succeeding pastors, 
until his death, which occurred in 1786. 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 67 

In 1776 the American independence was 
declared, and a revolution effected, not only 
in political affairs, but also in those relating 
to religion. For while the thirteen provinces 
of North America rejected the yoke of Eng- 
land, they proclaimed, at the same time, free- 
dom of conscience, and the right of worship- 
ping the Almighty according to the spirit of 
the religion to which each one should belong. 
Before this great event the Catholic faith had 
penetrated into two provinces only, viz. — Ma- 
ryland and Pennsylvania. In all the others 
the laws against the Catholics were in force. 
Any priest coming from foreign parts, was 
subject to the penalty of death ; all who pro- 
fessed the Catholic faith were not merely ex- 
cluded from all offices of government, but 
could hardly be tolerated in a private capa- 
city. While this state of things continued, 
it is not surprising that but very few of them 
settled in those provinces : and they, for the 
most part, forsook their religion. Even in 
Maryland and Pennsylvania, as was before 
mentioned, the Catholics were oppressed : 
the missionaries were insufficient for the 
wants of two provinces, and it was next to 



68 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

impossible to disseminate the faith beyond 
their boundaries. 

By the declaration of independence, every 
difficulty was removed, the Catholics were 
placed on a level with their fellow-christians, 
and every political disqualification was done 
away. 

Several reasons are assigned in the MS. 
for the immediate adoption of the article ex- 
tending to all the members of the states, an 
unqualified freedom of conscience. 

"I. The leading characters of the first as- 
sembly or congress, w r ere, through principle, 
opposed to every thing like vexation on the 
score of religion : and as they were perfectly 
acquainted with the maxims of the Catho- 
lics, they saw the injustice of persecuting 
them for adhering to their doctrines. 

" II. The Catholics evinced a desire, not less 
ardent than that of the Protestants, to ren- 
der the provinces independent of the mother 
country: and it was manifest that if they 
joined the common cause and exposed them- 
selves to the common danger, they should be 
entitled to a participation in the common 
blessings which crowned their efforts. 

u III. France w r as negotiating an alliance 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 69 

with the United Provinces; and nothing 
could have retarded the progress of that al- 
liance more effectually, than the demonstra- 
tion of any ill will against the religion which 
France professed. 

" IV. The aid, or at least the neutrality of 
Canada, was judged necessary for the suc- 
cess of the enterprise of the provinces, and 
by placing the Catholics on a level with all 
other christians, the Canadians, it was be- 
lieved, could not but be favorably disposed 
towards the revolution. 

" It was not till after the war, that the good 
effects of freedom of conscience began to de- 
velope themselves. The priests w r ere few in 
number and almost superannuated. There 
was but little communication between the 
Catholics of America and their bishop, the 
vicar apostolic of the district of London, on 
whose spiritual jurisdiction they w T ere depen- 
dent. But whether he did not wish to have 
any relation to a people whom he regarded in 
the light of rebels, or whether it was owing, 
says my old MS., to the natural apathy of his 
disposition, it is certain that he had hardly 
any communication either w T ith the priests or 
the laity on this side of the Atlantic. An- 



70 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

terior to the declaration of independence, 
he had appointed the Rev. Mr. Lewis his 
vicar ; and it was this gentleman who gov- 
erned the mission of America during the 
time that the bishop remained inactive. 

" Shortly after the war, the clergy of Ma- 
ryland and of Pennsylvania, convinced of the 
necessity of having a superior on the spot, and 
knowing too that the United States were op- 
posed to any jurisdiction in England, applied 
to the Holy See to grant them the privilege 
of choosing a superior from their own body. 
The request was acceded to, and their unan- 
imous suffrages centred on the Rev. John 
Carroll, whose election was approved by the 
Holy See, and on whom ample power, even 
that of administering confirmation, was im- 
mediately conferred. 

"The number of Catholics at this period, 
in Maryland, amounted to about sixteen 
thousand, the greater part of whom were 
dispersed through the country and employed 
in agriculture. In Pennsylvania there w 7 ere 
about seven thousand, and in the other 
states, as far as it was possible to ascertain, 
there were about fifteen hundred. In this 
number, however, were not included the Ca- 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 71 

nadians or French or their descendants, who 
inhabited the country to the west of the 
Ohio, and on the banks of the Mississippi. 

"In Maryland the priests were nine in num- 
ber, in Pennsylvania but five. Of these, five 
were worn out with infirmities and age, and 
the rest were advanced in years. None, ex- 
cept those in Baltimore and Philadelphia, 
subsisted on the contributions of their flocks." 

A little more than half a century has 
elapsed since the foregoing sketch was 
penned by the father of the Catholic Church 
in this country, and what a change has been 
worked in that short space of time ! How 
salutary, beautiful and encouraging, has been 
the operation of that wise and humane course 
of policy, wiiich our glorious revolution estab- 
lished and enforced ! 

Under the effect of a pure and enlightened 
spirit of religious equality, knitting together 
the social and political bonds of this great 
republic, guided by pious and learned pas- 
tors, and above all, by the aid and protec- 
tion of the Most High, that venerable and 
divine religion whose banners are unfurled 
in every region of the globe, has steadily and 
rapidly advanced to its present state of 



72 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OP THE 

strength and prosperity. Scarce fifty years 
ago we are told that the number of Roman 
Catholics in this country was about twenty- 
five thousand, now it amounts to one million 
three hundred thousand. Then there were 
but twenty-four clergymen, of whom "five 
were worn out with infirmities and age, and 
the rest were advanced in years ;" now they 
number four hundred and forty-eight, em- 
ployed in the ministry, and one hundred and 
fourteen otherwise occupied. And this won- 
derful progress of religion is now as active 
as ever, and the zeal, virtues, piety and learn- 
ing of the clergy of the present day in no 
manner inferior or less effective than those 
of their laborious predecessors. 

We have made the following brief compi- 
lation from the Catholic Almanac, for the 
purpose of placing before our readers the 
present state of the Roman Catholic Church 
in this republic. 

The first diocesses established in this coun- 
try, during the life time of the subject of our 
sketch, were those of Baltimore, New York, 
Philadelphia, Bardstown and Boston. The 
first was established in 1790, and after hav- 
ing been so worthily occupied by its first in- 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 73 

cumbent, has been successively and efficient- 
ly administered by Archbishops Neale, Mare- 
chal, Whitfield and Eccleston. 

That of New York, which comprises the 
state of New York and the eastern part of 
New Jersey, was established in 1808, and its 
present incumbent is the Right Rev. Bishop 
John Hughes. 

That of Philadelphia, which includes the 
states of Pennsylvania and Delaware, and 
the western portion of the state of New Jer- 
sey, was created in 1808, and the present 
bishop is the Right Rev. F. P. Kenrick. 

The diocess of Bardstown, embracing the 
state of Kentucky, was established in 1808, 
and the see is now occupied by the Right 
Rev. Bishop Benedict J. Flaget. 

That of Boston, which embraces all the 
New England states, was established in 
1808, and the Right Rev. Benedict J. Fen- 
wick at present occupies the see. 

The diocesses established since the death 
of Archbishop Carroll, are those of Cincin- 
nati, Richmond, Vincennes, St. Louis, New 
Orleans, Dubuque, Natchez, Mobile, Charles- 
ton and Nashville. 

The diocess of Cincinnati was established 
7 



74 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

in 1821, and embraces the state of Ohio, and 
its present bishop is the Right Rev. John B. 
Purcell. 

That of Richmond, which embraces the 
state of Virginia, was formed in the year 
1820. The Most Rev. Samuel Eccleston, 
Archbishop of Baltimore, has the adminis- 
tration of it during the vacancy of the see. 
Its present occupant is the Right Rev. R. V. 
Whelan. 

That of Vincennes, which includes the state 
of Indiana, and the eastern part of Illinois, 
w r as created in the year 1834 by Pope Gre- 
gory XVI. and the present incumbent is the 
Right Rev. Celestin De la Hailandiere. 

That of St. Louis, which embraces the 
state and territory of Missouri, the state of 
Arkansas and the western moiety of Illinois, 
was formed in 1826. The present incum- 
bent is the Right Rev. Bishop Joseph Ro- 
sati. 

The diocess of New Orleans, which em- 
braces the state of Louisiana, was established 
in 1793, under the French government, and 
its present occupant is the Right Rev. An- 
thony Blanc, D. D. 

The diocess of Dubuque comprises Iowa; 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 75 

it was created by Gregory XVI. in 1837, arid 
the Very Rev. Mathias Loras, vicar general 
of Mobile, appointed its first bishop, and in- 
stalled 29th April, 1839. 

The diocess of Natchez, which comprises 
the state of Mississippi, was established by 
the same pope, 28th July, 1837, and the Right 
Rev. J. J. Chanche is the present bishop. 

The diocess of Mobile comprises the state 
of Alabama, and the territory of Florida. 
The Right Rev. Michael Portier was ap- 
pointed vicar apostolic by Pius VII. in 1825, 
and was elevated to the episcopal chair in 
1829. 

The diocess of Charleston, comprising 
North and South Carolina and Georgia, was 
established 12th of July, 1820. The present 
bishop is the Right Rev. John England. # 

The diocess of Nashville, which comprises 
the state of Tennessee, was created by Gre- 
gory XVI., and the Right Rev. Richard P. 

* The pious and learned occupant of this diocess, de- 
parted this life on the 11th April, of the present year, 
regretted by his own church, and a large circle of ad- 
miring acquaintances of all denominations. The pub- 
lic grief was testified at Charleston, where he closed 
his distinguished and useful career on earth, in the 



76 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

Miles, provincial of the Dominican order in 
the United States, was appointed to the see. 

Having introduced the foregoing details for 
the purpose of presenting to our readers some 
idea of the extraordinary progress of the 
Roman Catholic faith in the United States, 
we return to the immediate subject of our 
remarks. 

One of the first objects that engaged the at- 
tention of the new vicar general, after he had 
been thus selected by his own brethren and 
approved by the head of the Church, afforded 
a fair presage of his future utility and ser- 
vices. Learned and enlightened himself, he 
was fully aware of the value of public in- 
struction and education in its general influ- 
ence upon the moral and religious character 
of society. Actuated by this sentiment, there- 
fore, and desirous of rendering a lasting ser- 
vice to the religion of which he was so zeal- 
ous a member, he suggested the idea, and in 
conjunction with his respectable brethren, 

most imposing and honorable manner. Long indeed 
will the memory of this great and good prelate be pre- 
served in the hearts of those who knew him, and his 
name be enrolled among the brightest ornaments of the 
Roman Catholic church in this country. 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 77 

succeeded in procuring the establishment of a 
college at Georgetown, on the Potomac, in 
the year 1791, which, though specially des- 
tined for the youth of the Roman Catholic 
religion in the United States, should, never- 
theless, be opened to those of other persua- 
sions, upon the principles set forth in the 
subjoined extract from the proposals written 
by him, and used for obtaining subscriptions 
toward the purchase of the ground and erec- 
tion of the necessary buildings. 

"The object of the proposed institution is," 
says the prospectus, " to unite the means of 
communicating science with an effectual pro- 
vision for guarding and improving the morals 
of youth. With this view 7 , the seminary will 
be superintended by those who, having had 
experience in similar institutions, know that 
an undivided attention may be given to the 
cultivation of virtue and literary improve- 
ment : and that a system of discipline may 
be introduced and preserved, incompatible 
with indolence and inattention in the profes- 
sor, or with incorrigible habits of immorality 
in the student. 

11 The benefit of this establishment should 
be as general as the attainment of its object is 



78 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

desirable. It will, therefore, receive pupils, 
as soon as they have learned the first ele- 
ments of letters, and will conduct them 
through the several branches of classical 
learning, to that stage of education, from 
which they may proceed with advantage to 
the study of the higher sciences, in the uni- 
versity of this, or those of the neighboring 
states, Thus it will be calculated for every 
class of citizens, — as reading, writing, arith- 
metic, the easier branches of the mathema- 
tics, and the grammar of our native tongue 
will be attended to no less than the learned 
languages. 

" Agreeable to the liberal principle of our 
constitution, the seminary will be open to 
students of every religious profession. They, 
who in this respect differ from the superin- 
tendents of the academy, will be at liberty 
to frequent the places of worship and instruc- 
tion appointed by their parents : but with 
respect to their moral conduct, all must be 
subject to general and uniform discipline. 

" In the choice of situation, salubrity of air, 
convenience and communication and cheap- 
ness of living, have been principally con- 
sulted — and Georgetown offers these united 
advantages." 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 79 

The means, however, to meet the necessa- 
ry expenses in the execution of this excellent 
plan, were almost entirely furnished from the 
property of the Roman Catholic clergy in 
Maryland, little or nothing being obtained by 
private contribution. 

Before the establishment of that college, 
the Roman Catholics of the United States 
were reduced to the necessity of sending their 
sons to such literary institutions and places 
of instruction as the country then afforded, 
except such as had the means to send them 
abroad ; and as these w r ere exclusively under 
the patronage or superintendence of persons 
of other denominations, and one of the ob- 
jects of the endowment of some of them 
was expressly to keep down the growth of 
the Roman Catholic religion, the youth of 
that persuasion were thus precluded from the 
opportunity of being instructed in the duties 
or made acquainted with the principles of 
their own faith, or were exposed to the dan- 
ger of imbibing strong and early prejudices 
against it. 

The importance and primary necessity of 
establishing an institution which might meet 
the wants of the Catholic community, and 



80 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

save them from the influence and intrigues of 
the enemies of their religion, presented them- 
selves in the strongest possible manner to the 
mind of the active vicar general, as is 
evinced in the warm terms with which he 
alludes to the subject in his valuable corres- 
pondence with the Rev. Mr. Plowden. 

We find him in 1788, speaking about the 
progress of the buildings and his great de- 
sire to procure good and competent profes- 
sors. — " I have the happiness to inform you, 
that our academy is begun, and we have 
some hopes of seeing it covered this year. 
Do not forget your promise of some assist- 
ance. But when the academy is completed, 
that is, the house, what shall we do for a 
general director or president of it? Liege 
absorbs all those who would be willing to 
lend their assistance, and others have prob- 
ably settled themselves for life. Do look 
out for some gentleman of abilities and judg- 
ment, and inspire into him a desire of ren- 
dering this eminent service. For, as for 
masters, we can do for a little time, with 
some to be collected in the country, and our 
own institutions will, in time, supply them.' 7 

In February, 1791, he says: "I trust in 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 81 

God, that our Georgetown academy will be 
opened in a few months. Congress having 
resolved to make that neighborhood, and per- 
haps that town their seat, and consequently 
the capital of the United States, gives a 
weight to our establishment there, which I 
little thought of, when I recommended that 
situation for the academy." 

He writes, under date of November, 1795, 
always returning with fresh ardor to his fa- 
vorite subject: — "The new building of the 
college is nearly completed, and a noble one 
it is. It presents a front of 154 feet, and an 
elevation of three stories on one side, and four 
on the other, as a slant of the ground un- 
covers the offices upon that view. I sincerely 
wish you had such a building at Stonehurst." 

In a subsequent letter, after alluding to the 
admirable spirit of devotion which confined 
the Catholic clergy to their posts during a 
contagious disorder in Philadelphia, he re- 
marks as follows : — " Would to God, George- 
town may ever emulate the excellency of 
Stonehurst in that respect ! But till it be 
blessed with masters acting with one spirit, 
and enforcing by their uniform example, the 
precepts of virtue, this cannot be expected, 



82 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

however ardently desired. Hired professors 
have an interest so different from that of a 
sacred attachment to the cause of God, his 
church and its truth, that we must labor 
with all our might to be able to form a bet- 
ter system." 

Previous to this, in 1790, he entered more 
at large in his views in relation to the acade- 
my, which was then in a state of prepara- 
tion. " I am greatly obliged to you for your 
generous intentions respecting it. I think we 
shall get enough of it accomplished this sum- 
mer, to make a beginning of teaching, but 
our great difficulty will be to get a proper 
president or superintendent. The fate of the 
school will depend much on the first impres- 
sion made upon the public ; and a president 
of known abilities and reputation will contri- 
bute greatly to render that impression a very 
favorable one. Many seminaries of education 
have been raised in the United States within 
these few years ; but, in general, they are ex- 
ceedingly defective in discipline. A college 
has been lately opened at Annapolis, under the 
protection of our state legislature, and amply 
endowed by them. It is erected on princi- 
ples of perfect equality as to religion. The 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 83 

original agents appointed by act of assembly, 
to model and encourage it, were three cler- 
gymen and three laymen, one of whom were 
Catholic, church of England, and Presbyte- 
rian. I had the honor of being the former. 
This matter was broached before we formed 
a plan of our academy at Georgetown. I 
see at present no other advantage to us Ca- 
tholics in the Annapolis college, than this, 
that it may be a place for our young lads, 
who have perfected their grammar education 
at Georgetown, to pursue the higher studies 
of law, medicine, &c. In other respects it 
will be hurtful to our institution." 

Having quoted enough to show our read- 
ers how deeply interested was the subject of 
our biography, in the establishment and wel- 
fare of his favorite creation, the prosperity, 
high and deserved reputation of which, for 
the piety and learning of its faculty, and sal- 
utary influence upon the moral and religious 
education of youth, he lived to witness and 
enjoy, we cannot do better than conclude our 
notice of this now flourishing and excellent 
institution, by inserting the interesting arti- 
cle, written for the Metropolitan of Decern- 



84 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

ber 5th, 1832, by its then editor, the Rev. 
Charles Constantine Pise. 

" GEORGETOWN COLLEGE. 

a Among the literary institutions which 
since the era of the revolution, have been 
founded, and have continued to flourish 
with undiminished reputation, the univer- 
sity commonly called " the Georgetown Col- 
lege," stands eminently conspicuous. Few 
nurseries of education have sent forth pupils 
formed with nicer attention, more general in- 
formation, more elegant attainments, and 
above all, with greater regard to moral and 
religious principles, than the one which con- 
stitutes the subject of these remarks. 

" The system of education pursued by the 
faculty is not an experimental one, the suc- 
cess of which time alone will be able to de- 
velope ; it is a system which has long since 
been proved : which has, for nearly three cen- 
turies, awakened the public attention, chal- 
lenged the public scrutiny, and won the pub- 
lic approbation. To have an idea of this 
system, the reader must consult the stand- 
ard by which it is directed, the ratio dicendi 
et discendi, by Pere Jouvency. 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 85 

" Let it not, however, be imagined that be- 
cause it is ancient, it is antiquated ; because it 
was adopted ere much of the light which has 
since dawned on the literary world had been 
descried, that it is not conformable to the age 
and country in which we live. The substance 
of education is always the same, and it will 
not be denied that our fathers, and their fa- 
thers, were as substantially taught, as we are 
at the present day. What a catalogue of 
most elegant scholars and profoundly learned 
men cannot the two preceding ages, as well as 
the present, display to the admiration of the 
curious — -philosophers, historians, linguists, 
poets, divines, — their works live after them, 
many of them models of style, and stamped 
with erudition. 

"But the system of this university keeps 
pace with the development and spirit and 
genius of our age and country. It embraces 
all modern literature, comprises all modern in- 
ventions, and cherishes the principles of liber- 
ty and republicanism. The library which 
contains twelve thousand volumes, is open to 
the curiosity of the pupils, and is deficient in 
very few of the works of modern writers that 
are worth preserving ; reviews, periodicals, 
8 



86 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OP THE 

pamphlets, papers, and every variety of mis- 
cellaneous effusions, selected with scrupulous 
caution by the faculty, are offered to the pe- 
rusal of the students. 

" The character of their national celebra- 
tions, the institute of their Philodemic society 
the spirit breathed through the speeches at 
their commencements, attest their patriotism, 
and ardent devotion to our national institu- 
tions, and the care that is taken to implant 
in the youthful breast a lofty love of inde- 
pendence, and a generous patriotism. Per- 
haps there is not in the country an institution, 
where a greater portion of republican feeling 
can be discovered, whenever occasion calls 
it forth. Witness, for instance, the very ex- 
cellent oration delivered last fourth of July 
by Mr. Floyd, son of the governor of Virginia. 
Their essays, their speeches, their poetry, are 
pregnant with the vis divina, that fire of free- 
dom, and that dulcis amor patrice, which 
w T ould do honor to the youths of Rome and 
Athens, in their most flourishing days. 

" The morale of the university is preserved 
with the most vigilant solicitude. The na- 
ture of the system precludes almost the pos- 
sibility of their pupils contracting any of those 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 87 

vicious habits which would grow up with 
them to maturity. The situation secluded, 
and aloof from the bustle of the town ; the 
vigilance of the prefects, under whose eyes 
the students are always found; the attend- 
ance of the professors when they w 7 alk for ex- 
ercise beyond the limits of the enclosure, 
keep them not in servile fear, but under a 
necessary and decorous restraint. In this 
manner, they are preserved from boyhood, 
from practices which are frequently the dis- 
grace of youth not so strictly guarded, and 
the ruin of many a great and aspiring mind. 
" Morality is not the only lesson that is 
taught. Religion is inculcated. For it would 
be difficult, almost impossible, to preserve 
the former, without inculcating the latter. 
The tenets professed by the university are 
Roman Catholic. These the faculty feel 
themselves bound to explain in their cate- 
chistical instructions to all the pupils, no mat- 
ter of what denomination, for they deem it 
a part of a general education to know what 
are the real principles of the Catholic Church, 
and how their principles are misrepresented. 
But at the same time, they bind themselves 
to make no distinction between Catholic or 



88 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OP THE 

Protestant — to instruct the former radically, 
and to use no improper influence to proselyt- 
ize the latter. All alike are required to at- 
tend divine worship, to listen to moral dis- 
courses, to devote some time to the study of 
the sacred scriptures, on Sundays and ecclesi- 
astical festivals ; but, of course, only the Ca- 
tholic portion are required to comply with 
the practical obligations of the church. 

" The institution, for its general economy 
and concerns, is under the direction of the 
faculty. Besides the president and vice-pre- 
sident, there is a prefect of studies, who is al- 
ways a gentleman of general attainments and 
great experience, whose office it is to preside 
over the schools — to arrange the different 
classes — to note the talents, improvement, 
disposition and conduct of the students, while 
at class ; to keep a strict account of these 
particulars, and report to the president at 
stated times. The ordinary prefects are 
three in number. It is their office to watch 
over their deportment during the hours of re- 
creation, to give special permissions, to ex- 
act punishments when duty renders it neces- 
sary to inflict them, and to accompany the 
pupils in their walks and rambles. The 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 89 

professors are responsible for their pupils 
only during the hours of their various classes. 
This arrangement is admirably calculated to 
preserve strict order; it divides the arduous 
responsibility of a university, specifying to 
each member his particular department, with 
which no other can conflict, — which is dis- 
tinct in itself, and thus allows more time, 
more opportunity of exactness, and regular 
discipline, than could be derived from any 
other mode of action. 

" The local advantages of Georgetown col- 
lege yield to none, it may be said without 
exaggeration, in any country. Elevated and 
sequestered, though within the limits of the 
tow r n, it lifts its turrets high above the forest 
that surrounds it, commanding a view of the 
Potomac, on whose banks it is situated, of 
the bridge which stretches across the w 7 aters, 
of Mason's Island, of the Capitol, President's 
house, and the whole city of Washington. 
These scenes constitute the front view. The 
back prospect is perfectly rural, varied with 
hill and dale, and deeply set with every spe- 
cies of forest trees. A serpentine walk, em- 
bowered in shade, circulates around the val- 
ley, forming a delightful promenade during 
8* 



90 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

the sultry season, and reminding the wander- 
ing student of the vale of Tempe. 

. . . . Praerupta quod undique claudit — 
Silva 

" While the stream gurgling down its sides 
may be fancied to correspond to the waters 
of Peneus, which 

ab imo 

Effusus Pindo spumosis volvitur undis. 

"The main college, a noble edifice 153 feet in 
length, was erected in the year 1791. It is sup- 
ported by two towers, which give an appear- 
ance of grandeur and solemnity to the whole. 
These towers may be descried at a very great 
distance ; and their view, especially from the 
river, is beautiful and imposing. Like the 
c distant spires and antique towers' of Eton, 
they ( crown the watery glade,' and as the 
eye of any of her former pupils falls upon 
them, he may exclaim with Gay — 

Ah, happy hills ! — Ah, pleasant shade ! — 
Ah fields beloved in vain ! 



" The other building, commonly called ' the 
old college/ claims a more ancient origin. 
It was raised anno 1789. Its dimensions are 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 91 

sixty-three by fifty-one feet. Hitherto the re- 
fectory and kitchen have been under this roof, 
but they are soon to be removed to a new and 
magnificent edifice which is now erecting, 
and which will be covered in before winter. 
This addition to the old college is ninety-five 
feet in length, and fifty-one in breadth, built 
of the best materials, in the most substantial 
manner. There has also been erected, under 
the auspices of the present enterprising pre- 
sident, a new infirmary, four stories high, 
sixty feet in length and fifty-three in breadth, 
Through each story, a wide and airy corridor 
runs the whole length of the building, and 
the apartments are so arranged, that the sick 
students have each a comfortable room, with 
excellent accommodations, and are attended 
with indefatigable care by the infirmarians. 

" This institution was founded anno 1789. 
Among her first pupils, she is proud to ac- 
knowledge the Hon. William Gaston of North 
Carolina, and Robert Walsh, Esq. of Phila- 
delphia. 

H Since its foundation, as may be seen from 
the registers preserved in the archives of the 
house, several thousands of youths have been 
educated within its walls ; and an idea of the 



92 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

salubrity of the place will be formed from the 
fact, that up to the present date, not an indi- 
vidual pupil has ever died in it. It is very 
doubtful whether the same extraordinary fact 
can be asserted of any similar institution in 
this country.' 7 

The library of the college, which was com- 
posed of twelve thousand volumes in 1832, 
has been increased to about twenty-four 
thousand, and the new building mentioned 
in the foregoing article, is now occupied as a 
refectory, chapel and study, and exhibition 
room. The college possesses a valuable mu- 
seum, with a fine collection of philosophical 
and chemical instruments, and a vineyard is 
cultivated on the farm, which supplies the 
chapel, and those of Georgetown and Alex- 
andria with wine for the altar, and is also 
used by the clergy at their own table. It is 
the intention of the faculty to erect an ob- 
servatory, which will add much to the use- 
fulness and reputation of the institution, and 
under the direction of its learned and zealous 
professor will prove of great and enduring ser- 
vice to the cause of science in this country. 

The present president is the Rev. James 
Ryder, whose high reputation as a cler- 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 93 

gyman, professor and orator, is a source 
of pride for his own church in this country, 
and of lasting benefit to the venerable insti- 
tution which he directs. 

We make the following brief extracts from 
an able address, delivered July 26th of the 
present year, before the Philodemic society, 
by P. P. Morris, Esq., of Philadelphia, in 
order to add, if possible, to the eloquent de- 
scription which precedes, thus spontaneously 
paid to the merits of Georgetown college, and 
its claims to public patronage and respect. 

Our orator feelingly exclaims : " The posi- 
tion of our alma mater is not easily forgot- 
ten. The broad and sinuous waters of the 
Potomac flowing majestically at our feet, 
marking for miles the boundary between the 
forest-crowned shores of Maryland and Vir- 
ginia, with its picturesque aqueduct and long 
line of bridge on the distance, enlivened by 
the various green of Mason's Island upon the 
left, with its rocky shores and ruined mill 
upon the right, give a physiognomical expres- 
sion to the scene, which to be remembered, 
needs to be but once beheld — and then those 
delightful walks, in groves more truly aca- 
demic than any which my eyes have else- 



94 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

where found, where the gurgling of fountains 
and the melody of birds, conspire in the in- 
tervals of study to soothe and refresh us. 
The library, so truly the student's ow^n, where 
the mental wealth of centuries is accumula- 
ted, and where with a little industry, the 
burning lights of ages may be concentrated 
to illumine the present, and where, it gives 
me special pleasure to say, the learned of the 
modern world are not forgotten. The dis- 
tinguished authors upon the leading topics of 
modern inquiry, whether politics, morals, or 
philosophy, are ranged side by side with the 
writers of by-gone days, that, by enquiry and 
comparison, every opportunity may be afford- 
ed to the diligent student for correcting 
prejudice and amending error. 

f 1 The cry of the modern w T orld is that of 
Ajax — Let us have light: and I have pecu- 
liar satisfaction in saying, gentlemen, that if 
when you come upon the stage of life, you 
find yourselves behind the age in your ideas, 
it cannot be attributed to the institution 
under whose care your mental training has 
been conducted.' 7 

Again: " To you, my friends, these hurried 
reflections are, perhaps, superfluous. The 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 95 

learned and reverend gentlemen with whom 
the last few years of your lives have been 
spent, experience and a fond recollection of 
their kindness admonish me, must have long 
since, with a more firm and skilful hand engra- 
ven all these matters upon the tablet of your 
memories. The moral propriety of every 
human action was wont, if I mistake not, to be 
the theme of constant discussion within these 
walls, and I take pleasure in saying that the 
cause of truth, of human happiness and hu- 
man rights, was always ably, eloquently and 
ardently, supported : and I trust this learned 
faculty will pardon me for saying, what I 
feel urged by the spirit of truth to declare, 
that no where have 1 seen more ardent de- 
votion to American liberty, purer patriotism, 
more unblemished virtue, and a more intelli- 
gent understanding of the rights of man, than 
among the followers of Ignatius Loyola. 7 ' 

This important and absorbing object of the 
attention of Mr. Carroll being so far effectu- 
ated, he united with his brethren in an ap- 
plication to the general assembly of Mary- 
land for an act to incorporate the trustees of 
the college, and they united with this applica- 
tion a petition to incorporate likewise the Ro- 



96 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

man Catholic clergy in the state of Maryland, 
for the purpose of their (the clergy's) empow- 
ering trustees of their own choice in the man- 
ner to hold, and to transmit to their suc- 
cessors, the real estates and other property, 
to a considerable amount in that state, which 
had from time to time been purchased by 
them, or been given or bequeathed for the 
use of the church : and which had all along 
been held by the precarious tenure of tes- 
tamentary titles, derived from the individuals 
in whom 'the legal interest was vested : and 
through his exertions and interest, and the 
liberality of that legislature, the two acts of 
incorporation solicited were duly passed. 

Soon after the present government of the 
United States was put into operation, a wri- 
ter in the Gazette of the United States, then 
edited and printed in New York, where the 
legislature of the Union was holding its first 
session, wrote and put forth a paper in that 
Gazette of an equivocal character, but which 
Mr. Carroll thought might and would be con- 
strued into an insidious invitation to the es- 
tablishment of a national religion for this 
country. Being in sentiment and in prac- 
tice, the friend and advocate of a universal 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 97 

toleration, or rather of a perfect liberty of 
conscience in matters of religion, he pre- 
pared and sent to the editor of that Gazette, 
a conclusive reply, under the signature of 
Pacificus, which brought forth an explana- 
tory note from the writer of the first men- 
tioned paper, in which he altogether dis- 
claims the design imputed to him. 

This reply will be deemed, beyond doubt, 
by our readers, conclusive proof of the lib- 
eral spirit of the Roman Catholic Church, 
and the active and patriotic part taken by 
its members in the glorious struggle which 
secured for us the blessings and liberty we 
now enjoy. 

"To the Editor of the Gazette of the U. S. 

" Sir : Every friend to the rights of con- 
science, equal liberty, and diffusive happi- 
ness, must have felt pain, on seeing the at- 
tempt made by one of your correspondents, 
in the Gazette of the U. S., No. 8, May the 
9th, to revive an odious system of religious 
intolerance. The author may not have been 
fully sensible of the tendency of his publica- 
tion, because he speaks of preserving univer- 
sal toleration. Perhaps he is one of those 
9 



98 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

who think it consistent with justice, to ex- 
clude certain citizens from the honors and 
emoluments of society, merely on account 
of their religious opinions, provided they be 
not restrained by racks and forfeitures, from 
the exercise of that worship which their 
consciences approve. If such be his views, 
in vain then have Americans associated into 
one great national union, under the express 
condition of not being shackled by religious 
tests; and under a firm persuasion, that they 
were to retain, when associated, every natu- 
ral right, not expressly surrendered. 

"Is it pretended, that they who are the ob- 
jects of an intended exclusion from certain 
offices of honor and advantage, have forfeited 
by any act of treason against the United 
States, the common rights of nature, or the 
stipulated rights of the political society, of 
which they form a part ? This the author 
has not presumed to assert. Their blood 
flowed as freely (in proportion to their num- 
bers) to cement the fabric of independence, 
as that of any of their fellow-citizens. They 
concurred, with perhaps greater unanimity 
than any other body of men, in recommend- 
ing and promoting that government, from 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 99 

whose influence America anticipates all the 
blessings of justice, peace, plenty, good order 
and civil and religious liberty. What cha- 
racter shall we then give to a system of poli- 
cy, calculated for the express purpose of 
divesting of rights legally acquired, those 
citizens who are not only unoffending, but 
whose conduct has been highly meritorious? 
" These observations refer to the general 
tendency of the publication, which I now 
proceed to consider more particularly. Is it 
true (as the author states) that our fore- 
fathers abandoned their native homes, re- 
nounced its honors and comforts, and buried 
themselves in the immense forests of this new 
world, for the sake of that religion which 
he recommends as preferable to any other ? 
Was not the religion which the emigrants to 
the four southern states brought with them 
to America, the pre-eminent and favored re- 
ligion of the country which they left 1 Did 
the Roman Catholics who first came to Ma- 
ryland, leave their native soil for the sake of 
preserving the Protestant Church ? Was 
this the motive of the peaceable Quakers in 
the settlement of Pennsylvania? Did the 
first inhabitants of the Jerseys and New 



100 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

York quit Europe for fear of being com- 
pelled to renounce their Protestant tenets ? 
Can it be even truly affirmed that this mo- 
tive operated on all, or a majority of those 
who began to settle and improve the four 
eastern states ? Or even if they really were 
influenced by a desire of preserving their re- 
ligion, what will ensue from the fact, but 
that one denomination of Protestants sought 
a retreat from the prosecution of another? 
Will history justify the assertion that they 
left their native homes for the sake of the 
Protestant religion, understanding it in a 
comprehensive sense as distinguished from 
every other 1 

" This leading fact being so much misstat- 
ed, no wonder that the author should go on 
bewildering himself more and more. He as- 
serts that the religion which he recommends 
laid the foundations of this great and new 
empire, and therefore contends that it is 
entitled to pre-eminence and distinguished 
favor. Might I not say with equal truth, 
that the religion which he recommends ex- 
erted her powers to crush this empire in its 
birth, and is still laboring to prevent its 
growth ? For, can we so soon forget, or now 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 101 

help seeing, that the bitterest enemies of our 
national prosperity profess the same reli- 
gion which prevails generally in the United 
States? What inference will a philosophic 
mind draw from this view, but that religion 
is out of the question — that it is ridiculous to 
say, the Protestant religion is the important 
bulwark of our constitution — that the estab- 
lishment of the American empire was not 
the work of this or that religion, but arose 
from a generous exertion of all her citizens, 
to redress their wrongs, to assert their rights, 
and lay its foundations on the soundest prin- 
ciples of justice and equal liberty? 

"When he ascribed so many valuable effects 
to his cherished religion, as that she was the 
nurse of arts and sciences, could he not re- 
flect, that Homer and Virgil, Demosthenes 
and Cicero, Thucydides, Livy, Phidias and 
Apelles, flourished long before this nurse of 
arts and sciences had an existence ? Was 
he so inconsiderate, as not to attend to the 
consequences, favorable to polytheism, which 
flow from this reasoning, or did he forget, that 
the emperor Julian, that subtle and inveter- 
ate enemy of Christianity, applied this very 

same argument to the defence of heathenish 
9* 



102 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OP THE 

superstition? The recollection of that cir- 
cumstance may induce him to suspect the 
weight of his observation, and perhaps to 
doubt the fact, which he assumed for its basis. 

" But he tells us that Britain 'owes to her 
religion her present distinguished greatness/ 
a gentle invitation to America to pursue the 
same political maxims, in heaping exclusive 
favors on one and depressing all other religions! 

" But does Britain indeed owe the perfec- 
tion and extent of her manufactures and the 
enormous wealth of many individuals, to the 
cause assigned by this writer ? Can he so 
soon put it out of his mind, that the patient 
industry so natural to English artificers, and 
the long monopoly of our trade, and that of 
their dependencies by increasing the demand, 
and a competition among her artizans, con- 
tributed principally to the perfection of the 
manufactures of Britain, and the plunder of 
Indian provinces poured into her lap im- 
mense fortunes, which murder and rapacity 
accumulated in those fertile climes? God 
forbid that religion should be instrumental in 
raising such greatness ! 

"When the author proceeds to say that the 
clergy of that religion, which operated such 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 103 

wonders in Britain, l boldly and zealously- 
stepped forth, and bravely stood our distin- 
guished sentinels, to bring about the late glo- 
rious revolution,' I am almost determined to 
follow him no further : he is leading me on 
too tender ground, on which I choose not to 
venture. The clergy of that religion behaved, 
I believe, as any other clergy w T ould have 
done in similar circumstances ; but the voice 
of America will not contradict me, when I 
assert, that they discovered no greater zeal 
for the revolution, than the ministry of any 
other denomination whatever. 

"When men comprehend not, or refuse to 
admit, the luminous principles on which the 
rights of conscience and liberty of religion de- 
pend, they are industrious to find out pretences 
for intolerance. If they cannot discover 
them in the actions, they strain to cull them 
out of the tenets of the religion, which they 
wish to exclude from a free participation of 
equal rights. Thus this writer attributes to 
his religion the merit of being most favorable 
to freedom ; and affirms that not only moral- 
ity, but liberty likewise, must expire, if his 
clergy should ever be contemned or neglect- 
ed, all which conveys a refined insinuation 



104 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

that liberty cannot consist with, or be cher- 
ished by any other religious institution, which 
therefore, he would give to understand it is 
not safe to countenance in a free government. 
"I am anxious to guard against the impres- 
sion, intended by such insinuations ; not mere- 
ly for the sake of any one profession, but from 
an earnest regard to preserve inviolate for- 
ever, in our new empire, the great principle 
of religious freedom. The constitutions of 
some of the states, continue still to entrench 
on the sacred rights of conscience; and men, 
who have bled, and opened their purses as 
freely, in the cause of liberty and independ- 
ence, as any other citizens, are most un- 
justly excluded from the advantages, which 
they contributed to establish. But if bigotry 
and narrow prejudices have hitherto pre- 
vented the cure of these evils, be it the duty 
of every lover of peace and justice to extend 
them no further. Let the author, who has 
opened this field for discussion, beware of 
slily imputing to any set of men, principles 
or consequences which they disavow. He 
perhaps may meet with retaliation. He may 
be told of, and referred to Lord Littleton, as 
zealous a Protestant as any man of his days, 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 105 

for information, that the principles of non-re- 
sistance seemed the principles of that religion, 
which (we are now told) is most favorable 
to freedom, and that its opponents had gone 
too far in the other extreme. # 

" He may be told farther, that a Rev. pre- 
late of Ireland, the Bishop of Cloyne, has 
lately attempted to prove that the Protestant 
Episcopal Church is best fitted to unite with 
the civil constitution of a mixed monarchy, 
while Presbyterianism is only congenial to 
republicanism. Must America then, yield- 
ing to these fanciful systems, confine her dis- 
tinguishing favors to the followers of Calvin, 
and keep a jealous eye on all others. Ought 
she not rather to treat with contempt these 
idle and (generally speaking) interested spe- 
culations, refuted by reason, history and 
daily experience ; and rest the preservation 
of their liberties, and her government, on the 
attachment of mankind to their political 
happiness, to the security of their persons, 
and their property which is independent of 
religious doctrines and not restrained by any? 

"June 10, 1789. Pacificus." 

[From Amer. Museum, Philad. 
* See Dialogue of the Dead. — First Dialogue. 



106 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

It was discovered now from the increased 
numbers of the Roman Catholics, that it 
would greatly promote the regular and more 
convenient discipline of their church, if the 
United States were formed into a separate 
diocess, and a bishop appointed over it. An 
application to this effect was accordingly 
made to the Holy See by his reverend breth- 
ren, recommending and soliciting this mea- 
sure, and as they done on a former occasion, 
respectfully presenting his name. 

The Pope, to whom the virtues and cha- 
racter of the Rev. Doctor Carroll* were 
well known, by the intimate and close con- 
nexion which had subsisted between him 
and the Holy See, in his administration of 
the Catholic Church of the United States 
as apostolic vicar general, and by the distin- 
guished reputation which his talents and ser- 
vices had procured for him at Rome, formed 
the United States into a separate diocess, as 
was desired, and readily confirmed the nomi- 
nation which had been made to him. 

* He had been made Doctor of Laws by the Uni- 
versity of St. John's of Annapolis, in Maryland, and 
afterwards received the same degree and that of D.D. 
from other universities in the United States. 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 107 

In the valuable correspondence with the 
Rev. Mr. Plowden, from which we have so 
often quoted, Dr. Carroll, in 1789, alludes to 
the negotiations which had been opened with 
the Holy See in relation to the appointment of 
a bishop, in the following terms : — "I received 
only about the middle of last month, Cardi- 
nal Antonelli's letter, dated in July last, by 
which he informs me, that his holiness has 
granted our request for an ordinary bishop, 
the see to be fixed by ourselves, and the 
choice to be made by the officiating clergy- 
men. The matter will be gone on imme- 
diately, and God, I trust, will direct to a 
good choice. This confidence is my com- 
fort ; otherwise I should be full of apprehen- 
sions of the choice falling where it would be 
fatal indeed.' 7 

In May of the same year, informing his 
correspondent of the issue of the election 
which placed him in the responsible post of 
the first American Roman Catholic bishop, 
he deplores in the most humble and Chris- 
tian manner this (for him) unexpected result, 
and expresses the fears which he enter- 
tained of his want of abilities to give satis- 
faction. In reading these, and other senti- 



108 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

ments so feelingly and eloquently poured 
forth by our meek and pious clergyman, we 
are forcibly impressed with a conviction of 
their sincerity, and with a feeling of the most 
exalted respect and admiration towards the 
writer. 

He writes as follows : — " Communicating 
freely with you as I do, you would not for- 
give me, were I to omit informing you, that 
a grant had been made to all our officiating 
clergy to choose one of their body, as bishop ; 
and it is left to our determination whether 
he shall be an ordinary, taking his title from 
some town of our appointment, or a titular 
bishop, by which I understand, a bishop con- 
stituted over a country without the designa- 
tion of any particular see, (vide Thomassin 
de la discipline de V Eglise). Our brethren 
chose to have an ordinary bishop, and named 
Baltimore to be the bishop's title, this being 
the principal town of Maryland, and that 
state being the oldest and still the most nu- 
merous residence of our religion in America. 
So far all was right. We then proceeded to 
the election; the event of which was such 
as deprives me of all expectation of rest or 
pleasure henceforward, and fills me with ter- 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 109 

ror, with respect to eternity. I am so stunned 
with the issue of this business, that I truly 
hate the hearing or mention of it ; and there- 
fore will say only, that since my brethren, 
whom in this case I consider as the inter- 
preters of the Divine will, say I must obey, I 
will even do it, if by obeying I shall sacrifice 
henceforth every moment of peace and satis- 
faction. I most earnestly commend myself 
to your prayers and those of my other friends.' 7 
Continuing in the same strain of touching 
piety, spiritual fear and christian resignation 
to the will of God, and obedience to clerical 
authority, he adds in subsequent letters : " If 
I could persuade myself, dear sir, to follow 
your example, in refusing peremptorily to 
submit to the choice of my brethren, I have 
much reason to think it would be better for 
our holy religion, and certainly to my greater 
ease of mind ; but having previously used all 
my sincere endeavors to divert them from 
such a choice, I cannot but acquiesce in it, 
as it was unanimous, excepting one vote. 
At the same time, my own knowledge of 
myself informs me better than a thousand 
voices to the contrary, that I am entirely 
unfit for a station, in which I can have no 
10 



110 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

hopes of rendering service, but through His 
help and continual direction, who has called 
me to it, when I was doing all in my power 
to prevent it. 

" The interest you take in a late event, 
proves the warmth of your friendship; but 
it proves likewise, how blind and partial 
friends are liable to be. Your condolence 
would have suited better the situation of mv 
mind; every day furnishes me with new re- 
flections, and almost every day produces new 
events, to alarm my conscience, and excite 
fresh solicitude at the prospect before me." 

It is a subject of grateful pride and satis- 
faction on the part of the Roman Catholics 
in this country, and the friends of the church 
elsewhere, to have it in their power now to 
assert in the most emphatic terms, that the 
apprehensions of the newly appointed bishop 
were without foundation. By the help and 
grace of that God to whose service he so 
zealously devoted himself, and with the aid 
of a sound judgment, real piety, and pre-emi- 
nent talents, the administration of his dio- 
cess was in all respects such as to justify the 
choice of his brethren, and to be pleasing in 
the eyes of God and man. 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. Ill 

Dr. Carroll having thus been appointed 
bishop over the Roman Catholic Church in 
this diocess, his episcopal see was established 
in Baltimore, and he assumed, with the ap- 
probation and by the authority from which 
he received the appointment, the title of 
" Bishop of Baltimore." 

He lost no time, upon receiving the proper 
evidence of his appointment, in taking the 
necessary steps for his consecration, in com- 
pliance with the united wishes of his breth- 
ren, and from a respectful deference to the 
high authority from which he derived it. 
Under all the circumstances which presented 
themselves, he determined upon going to 
England for this purpose, and accordingly 
went thither in 1790. 

Having received an invitation from Thos. 
Weld, Esq., an old friend of his, to be con- 
secrated at his residence, he writes thus to 
his correspondent in February, 1790, still 
clinging to the hope, that his nomination 
would not be confirmed at Rome: "I cannot 
sufficiently acknowledge the most obliging 
and honorable testimony of Mr. Weld's re- 
gard : you will be pleased to express, with all 
that warmth, which vou can communicate to 



112 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

your expressions, my deep sense of his gener- 
ous politeness. My inclination certainly leads 
me to accept of an offer not only so flattering, 
but which will afford me an opportunity of 
seeing some of those friends whom I shall 
ever honor and love. But I cannot yet de- 
termine what I shall do. I still flatter my- 
self that Divine Providence will provide 
some worthier subject to be its instrument in 
founding a church in America. " 

The confirmation of the holy see, of the 
choice made by the American clergy, having 
decided him as to the course duty compelled 
to adopt, the Bishop elect, hastened his de- 
parture for England, and sailed early in the 
summer of 1790. 

It was no less gratifying to those of his 
early friends in England, who still survived, 
than it was to him again to meet, after so 
long a separation. He did not suffer the 
claims of friendship, however, to interrupt or 
retard the purpose of his visiting that coun- 
try. Having made the necessary arrange- 
ments, he. was accordingly consecrated in the 
chapel of Lulworth castle, the seat of Mr. 
Weld, the 15th of August of the same year, 
by bishop Walmsley, upon which interesting 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 113 

occasion, an appropriate discourse was pro- 
nounced by his old friend, Father Charles 
Plowden, a distinguished member of the so- 
ciety of Jesus. 

This discourse, with a brief account of the 
ceremony, we present to our readers. 

This " account of the establishment of the 
new see of Baltimore," after giving some hasty 
details on the subject of the introduction of 
Catholicity into Maryland, lauding the spirit 
of religious equality which existed in the Uni- 
ted States, and mentioning the fact of the ele- 
vation to the episcopacy of Dr. Carroll, goes 
on to remark, " upon the receipt of his bulls 
from Rome, he immediately repaired to Eng- 
land, where his person and merits were well 
known ; and presented himself for consecra- 
tion to the Right Rev. Dr. Charles Walms- 
ley, bishop of Rama, senior vicar apostolic of 
the Catholic religion in this kingdom. By 
invitation of Thomas Weld, Esq., the conse- 
cration of the new bishop was performed 
during a solemn high mass, in the elegant 
chapel at Lulworth castle, on Sunday the 
15th day of August, 1790, being the feast of 
the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary ; 
and the munificence of that gentleman omit- 
10* 



114 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

ted no circumstance, which could possibly 
add dignity to so venerable a ceremony. 
The two prelates were attended by their re- 
spective assistant priest and acolytes, accord- 
ing to the rubric of the Roman pontifical 
The richness of their vestments, the music of 
the choir, the multitude of the wax lights, 
and the ornaments of the altar, concurred to 
increase the splendor of the solemnity, which 
made a lasting impression upon every be- 
holder. When the whole company was 
seated, the following short address was deli- 
vered to the congregation, by one of the 
assistant priests: 

" 'Our blessed Lord and Redeemer, having 
defeated the powers of hell, by the triumph 
of the cross, formed to himself a kingdom of 
earth, which was to consist of the chosen of 
every nation ; because all nations were now 
become his own, by right of conquest. The 
sun of justice, which rose from the east, has 
in its progress enlightened every region of 
the globe; and the kingdom of Christ, the 
church, under the government of his vicar 
and of pastors deputed by him, has succes- 
sively embraced the whole world. Ages suc- 
ceed ages ; empires subvert empires ; but the 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 115 

empire of Jesus Christ perseveres ever one 
and the same ; ever persecuted and ever con- 
quering ; because all human revolutions are 
entirely subservient to it ; and the formation 
of the kingdom of Christ is the ultimate ob- 
ject of the whole dispensation of Providence, 
in the government of this world. Never, per- 
haps, was this truth more sensibly evinced, 
than in the late violent convulsions, by which 
the hand of the Almighty has dismembered 
the great British empire, and has called forth 
into existence a new empire in the western 
world, the destinies of which, we trust, are 
founded in his tenderest mercies. For al- 
though this great event may appear to us to 
have been the work, the sport of human pas- 
sions, yet the earliest and most precious fruit 
of it has been the extension of the kingdom of 
Christ, the propagation of the Catholic reli- 
gion, which, heretofore fettered by restrain- 
ing laws, is now enlarged from bondage, and 
is left at liberty to exert the full energy of 
divine truth. Already is Catholicity ex- 
tended to the utmost boundaries of the im- 
mense continent of America. Thousands are 
there earnestly demanding Catholic instruc- 
tors. And all, penetrated with reverence for 



116 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

the apostolical see of St. Peter, have concur- 
red to demand from his successor, a Catholic 
prelate, whose knowledge and whose zeal 
may establish the faith of Peter in those ex- 
tensive countries. 

"It is to be observed, that if Britain infected 
them with error, we have the consolation to 
know, that their Catholicity is also derived 
immediately from us; and as we, in former 
ages, received the faith of Rome from the 
great St. Gregory and our apostle St. Austin : 
so now, at an interval of twelve hundred 
years, our venerable prelate, the heir of the 
virtues and labors of our apostle, will, this 
day, by commission from the successor of St. 
Gregory, consecrate the first father and bishop 
of the new church, destined, as we confide, 
to inherit those benedictions which the first 
called have ungratefully rejected. Glorious 
is this day, my brethren, for the church of 
God, which sees new nations crowding into 
her bosom : glorious for the prelate elect, who 
goes forth to conquer these nations for Jesus 
Christ, not by the efforts of human power, 
but in the might with those weapons which 
have ever triumphed in this divine warfare. 
He is not armed with the strength of this 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 117 

world ; but he is powerful in piety, powerful 
in zeal, powerful in evangelical poverty, and 
firm reliance on the protection of that God 
who sends him. Glorious is this event, for 
his numerous spiritual children, to whom his 
virtues have long endeared him : comforting 
it is to us who have been long connected with 
him by the virtuous ties of education, profes- 
sion and friendship : but in a special manner, 
my brethren, honorable and comforting is 
this awful solemnity to his and our common 
benefactor, the founder of this holy sanctuary, 
which shall be revered through succeeding 
ages, even by churches yet unnamed, as the 
privileged, the happy spot from whence their 
episcopacy and hierarchy took their immedi- 
ate rise, and this precious distinction will be 
justly attributed to the protection and favor 
of the glorious mother of God, whose house 
it is,* and through whose patronage all chris- 
tian churches are founded. On this her great- 
est solemnity, my brethren, it is your duty 
to implore the particular assistance of the 
great queen of heaven ; and while you are 
edified by the solemn rites, with which the 

* It is dedicated to the B. V. Mary. 



118 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OP THE 

Catholic church consecrates her prelates, you 
will earnestly solicit the descent of the Holy 
Ghost, on the bishop elect, that like another 
Austin, he may worthily fulfil the extent of 
the apostleship to which he is called ; and 
when you implore for him the sevenfold grace 
of the Holy Spirit, you will not fail to de- 
mand it through the intercession of her whom 
you daily salute, ' Mother of Divine Grace.' 

" In full confidence of her protection and 
blessing upon our ministry, we proceed to 
the solemnity of the consecration.'" 

The bulls constituting the see of Baltimore, 
was given by Pope Pius VI., and bears date 
the 6th November, 1789. 

He principally devoted to the interchange 
of social civilities with his numerous friends, 
the short space of time that intervened be- 
fore the sailing of the same ship (in which he 
proposed returning) ; and although pressing 
invitations were extended from old and at- 
tached acquaintances, he could not reconcile 
it to his sense of duty to accept them, and 
pass that time, which he considered as now 
belonging to the flock that anxiously ex- 
pected and needed him at home, in selfish 
enjoyment. 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 119 

From a letter to a friend, dated London, 
September 13, 1790, declining an invitation 
to revisit Lul worth castle, we see how much 
he sacrificed in thus suddenly and for ever 
separating himself from kind and warm- 
hearted friends, whose society he had en- 
joyed for so brief a time. 

He says, " I am sorry, very sorry, indeed, 
to inform you that I cannot, without the 
greatest inconvenience, revisit Lulworth, and 
present once more my respectful thanks to 
the worthy master and mistress of the castle. 
I have balanced long, in my own mind, the 
opposite considerations of further sojourn- 
ment in England, and immediate return to 
America ; and I think, after all deliberation, 
that my duty calls me to return immediately 
to my diocess, and give the example of resi- 
dence in it ; for, in general, bishops are so 
ready to admit pretexts for exempting them- 
selves from that obligation, that I think my- 
self bound to give them no encouragement 
by my example, even on a plausible pre- 
tence. I shall therefore make all necessary 
preparations for sailing in a fortnight or a 
little more from this time. I cannot resolve 
on this without great pain of mind ; and in- 



120 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

deed without feeling some regret for having 
come to England, since I must leave it so 
soon, and in it leave so many valuable, not 
only my dearest friends, but the friends of 
religion and models of virtue. Long shall I 
retain the impression made on me at Lul- 
worth castle by the goodness, the charity, 
the loveliness of every branch of that most 
respectable family ; and I am sure my heart 
will be full of the gratefulest emotions when 
I shall sail abreast of the castle. They 
w r ill accompany me to America, and will be 
soothed, though revived afresh, whenever I 
shall have the comfort of a letter from you." 
Having thus done violence to his feelings, 
and sacrificed on the altar of duty his own 
most ardent wishes and predilections, in Oc- 
tober of the same year he embarked at 
Gravesend, and arrived at Baltimore on the 
7th December, after a rough and disagreea- 
ble passage. The late Bishop Madison, of 
Virginia, between w 7 hom and his reverend 
friend the most cordial relations were long 
after this agreeable meeting carefully pre- 
served, accompanied him to and returned 
with him from England ; he likewise having 
gone thither for the purpose of being conse- 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 121 

crated bishop of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church in that state. 

The arrival of Bishop Carroll was an- 
nounced in a public journal of Baltimore 
with expressions of peculiar satisfaction, and 
in terms evincing the highest respect of his 
fellow citizens of all denominations. He 
himself gives the following description of his 
reception, and of the ceremonies attendant 
upon his installation, in a letter to his cor- 
respondent in England. " I gave you in- 
formation, by the first opportunity, of my 
safe arrival at Baltimore, December 7th. 
At my arrival, as my friends in Baltimore 
got notice of the ship being in the bay, I was 
met by a large body of Catholics and others 
at the landing, and conducted to our house. 
On the following Sunday you may believe 
the concourse of all sorts of people to our 
church was very great, though the day 
proved unfavorable. Five of my brethren 
were with me. They, with the trustees or 
wardens of the church, received me, vested 
in my pontificals, at the door, and walked 
into the church processionally ; after the 
AspergeSj and whilst the Te Deum was 
singing, I was conducted to the foot of the 
11 



122 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

altar, and, after it was finished, to the pon- 
tifical seat or throne, where I received the 
obeisance of the clergy, and some of the 
laity, in behalf of the rest, they approaching 
to kiss the episcopal ring. The remaining 
ceremonies w r ere performed as in the pontifi- 
cal, such as giving solemn benediction, pro- 
claiming indulgences, 7 ' &c. 

After remaining a few days in Baltimore, 
he hastened to the residence of his mother, 
to testify towards her those sentiments of 
love and veneration which characterized so 
strongly his intercourse with her, and to re- 
new those kindly and genial relations with 
the rest of his family and surrounding friends, 
which rendered him so dear and acceptable 
to them all. 

About the period of his short visit to Eng- 
land, the tendency of the revolutionary prin- 
ciples and movements in France warned the 
clergy, in the last mentioned country, of the 
necessity of escaping from scenes in which 
they had become so obnoxious to the princi- 
pal actors, and of seeking an asylum where 
they might live in safety, and be permitted 
to exercise the functions of their ministry 
without personal hazard. About the period, 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. - 123 

therefore, of which we speak, many of the 
most respectable of that body took refuge in 
England ; and amongst these the Rev. Mr. 
Nagot, one of the directors of the ecclesias- 
tical seminary of St. Sulpice, in Paris, was 
much distinguished, as much by his connec- 
tion with that learned institution, as by his 
own personal merits. The bishop of Bal- 
timore, availing himself of the opportunity 
that accident had thus placed in his way, 
engaged the services of this gentleman and 
his brethren for his newly established dio- 
cess; Mr. Nagot undertaking to return to 
France and make the necessary arrange- 
ments, in concert with the superior and other 
members of the college of St. Sulpice, for 
their coming to and forming a similar estab- 
lishment in this country. 

Before leaving the United States to be 
consecrated, Dr. Carroll had foreseen the 
necessity of such an establishment, and had 
aided his brethren in the formation of one 
attached to the college of Georgetown, but 
upon a small scale. The exigencies of the 
missionary service, however, leaving too 
small a portion of professors of divinity even 
for the school at Georgetown, it became par- 



124 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

ticularly desirable to procure the establish- 
ment of one upon a larger scale ; especially 
since it was no longer necessary for those 
persons in the United States who might be 
called to the church, to incur the expense of 
leaving their own country to be ordained by 
bishops residing in foreign states. 

Under these circumstances, the plan above 
mentioned was suggested to Mr. Nagot, and 
adopted, and correspondent measures were 
accordingly taken, upon his return to Paris. 
Great difficulties were experienced, how- 
ever, by the Sulpicians, in the withdrawal 
of themselves, or any part of their property, 
from France, owing to the political state 
of things at that time in that country ; but 
they succeeded so far as to effect the remo- 
val to the United States of Mr. Nagot, with 
several of his learned and pious brethren; 
and through the kind and opportune assist- 
ance of Mr. Gouverneur Morris, the then 
minister of the United States in France, to 
transfer a part of their funds and property 
likewise to this country. By the advice of 
the right reverend bishop, and the judicious 
selection of a Roman Catholic gentleman 
of Baltimore, an eligible and prudent invest- 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 125 

merit was made of those funds in the pur- 
chase of a house and several acres of land 
appurtenant to it, in the environs of that 
city. Here the Sulpicians instituted their 
new ecclesiastical seminary under the imme- 
diate government of their former director, 
and with the auspices of the full approba- 
tion, agency, and best wishes of their new 
bishop.* 

In a letter dated London, 25th September, 
1790, the bishop gives the following brief 
account of his first interview with Mr. Na- 
got on the subject of the proposed establish- 
ment in his new diocess. " Providence 
seems to favor our views. In consequence 
of a previous correspondence between the 
Nuncio at Paris and Monsieur Emery, supe- 
rior general of St. Sulpice, on one hand, and 
myself on the other, Monsieur Nagot, supe- 
rior du petit seminaire de St. Sulpice, has 
been here. We have settled that two or 
three gentlemen, selected by M. Emery, shall 
come over to Baltimore next spring. They 
are furnished with the means of purchasing 

* The seminary was raised to the rank of univer- 
sity in January, 1805, by the Legislature of Ma- 
ryland. 

n* 



126 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OP THE 

ground for buildings, and, I hope, of endow- 
ing a seminary for young ecclesiastics. I 
believe they will bring three or four semina- 
rians with them, who either are English, or 
know it. They will be amply provided with 
books, apparatus for the altar, church, &c, 
professors of philosophy and divinity. I pro- 
pose fixing these very near to my own home, 
the cathedral of Baltimore, that they may 
be, as it were, the clergy of the church, and 
contribute to the dignity of divine w r orship. 
This is a great and auspicious event for our 
diocess; but it is a melancholy reflection 
that we owe so great a blessing to the la- 
mentable catastrophe in France. 77 

Impressed with the importance of this es- 
tablishment for the best interests of the 
church, to which he was now constantlv de- 
voting all his time, talents, and energies, we 
find the bishop alluding to the subject, 
throughout his correspondence with his Eng- 
lish friend, in the warmest and most grati- 
fied manner, testifying in word and deed the 
deep concern he felt for the progress and 
prosperity of his worthy protegee. 

He says, in Sept. 1792, " When I returned 
from Boston, in July, I had the happiness of 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 127 

finding here M. Nagot with his company from 
St. Sulpice ; himself, and three other priests 
belonging to the establishment, viz., a pro- 
curator and two professors, and five semina- 
rians. They will be joined soon by one or 
two natives of this country. These now, 
with Mr. Delavan, a worthy French priest, 
form the clergy of my cathedral, (a paltry 
cathedral.) and attract a great concourse of 
all denominations by the great decency and 
exactness with which they perform all parts 
of divine service. 

"If in many instances the French revolu- 
tion has been fatal to religion, this country 
promises to derive advantage from it." 

In this letter he also takes occasion to al- 
lude to the laborious nature of the station to 
which he had just been elevated. " Such," 
says he, " has been my continual occupation 
since my return, that I have not yet had 
leisure enough to convoke a diocesan synod. 
If possible one must be held early in Novem- 
ber. The business of a coadjutor, and many 
regulations to be formed, call loudly for the 
holding of such a meeting. My diocess is yet 
badly regulated, and it cannot be much bet- 
ter, till I can command more time to form 



128 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

regulations. Being all alone to answer all 
letters, to copy them, to attend to all details, 
much of course is neglected or forgotten. If 
I do not write you as often or as fully as you 
have a right to expect, you must not impute 
the fault to me, but to unavoidable hindrances. 
I assure you, that there are twenty people in 
this town, to whom I owe, and wish to pay 
the respect of a civil visit, without having 
been able to do it for many months ; though 
I am busy from five in the morning, till be- 
tween ten and eleven at night." 

Soon after the return of the bishop, he ad- 
dressed a pastoral letter to the flock commit- 
ted to his charge, intended specially for their 
instruction and edification, and communica- 
ted particularly to them by their several 
priests ; but a copy of that letter falling into 
the hands of a reverend gentleman belonging 
to another religious communion, he took fire 
at the signature made use of, that of i(t John, 
Bishop of Baltimore," and published through 
the medium of the newspapers, some harsh 
strictures upon it. This brought forth " The 
Reply" on the part of the bishop of Bal- 
timore, and no further animadversions ap- 
pear to have been made upon the signature, 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 129 

though constantly afterwards used by the 
bishop during his administration. This doc- 
ument runs as follows : " An Answer to 
Strictures on an Extraordinary Signature." 
" The Roman Catholic Bishop of Baltimore, 
in a late letter to his flock, which acknow- 
ledges his pastoral jurisdiction, adopts the 
language sanctioned by the immemorial 
usage of his church, and takes his appella- 
tion from the town, where his episcopal see 
is erected. This is agreeable to the disci- 
pline established amongst Catholics, and to 
the practice of his brethen in the episcopa- 
cy ; and he hopes that it is not repugnant 
to any law of his country. He has not in- 
vaded the rights of any religious society ; 
nor interfered to control their form oficords; 
nor disturbed their ministers, for speaking 
or waiting, in any style they chose, to the 
people who looked up to them for instruc- 
tion. Leaving them in the unimpeached ex- 
ercise of that liberty, which our free con- 
stitution grants them, he has claimed the 
same benefit to himself; and, of consequence, 
has been careful to preserve the language of 
his predecessors in the episcopal charge, from 
its institution, near eighteen hundred years 
ago, down to the present time ; for he knows, 



130 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

that the integrity of christian doctrine, gene- 
rally, is preseved best by a faithful adherence 
to the same modes of speech ; and he is not 
disposed to sacrifice to a spirit of innovation, 
or to a levelling antihierarchical system of 
religion, those expressions, by which all ages 
of Christianity have designated his office. 

" Yet this, it seems, is not pleasing to a 
writer, who signs himself Liberal. If like his 
opponent, the bishop were disposed to write 
trifling strictures on a signature, he would not 
let this of Liberal pass unnoticed : for surely, 
none ever accorded less than this, with the 
composition to which it is subscribed. To 
be liberal, in the modern use of the term, is 
to assert, with firmness and impartiality, the 
liberty, to which all of us are entitled, of pro- 
fessing the doctrines, following the usages, 
and speaking the language of our respective 
churches. Does Liberal allow this ? So far 
from it, that he intimates a threat, if his eyes 
be offended again with the inscription of 
Bishop of Baltimore. Such is his liberality. 

" ' Baltimore/ he says, ' is a large place, 
containing many inhabitants, who disown the 
bishop's jurisdiction, and some who do a good 
deal more :' by which he means, it may be 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 131 

supposed, that they reject episcopacy alto- 
gether. Let them, if they please, disown the 
one, and reject the other : they use their con- 
stitutional right: and if the bishop knows 
his own heart, he will leave them in the full 
enjoyment of it ; but he will ask, whether, in 
the earliest days of Christianity, Rome, An- 
tioch, Alexandria, Corinth, Ephesus, &c, 
were not likewise large places ? and whether 
a great majority of their inhabitants were not 
heathens, who disowned and rejected bishops 
and their jurisdiction ? Nevertheless, per- 
plexing, as it must have been to the liberals 
of those days, to discover the meaning and 
persons intended by the following words : we 
read of Clement, Bishop of Rome ; Ignatius, 
Bishop of Antioch ; Alexander, Bishop of Al- 
exandria, &c. Where lies the greater diffi- 
culty which cost Liberal so much time, be- 
fore he could ascertain the person meant by 
John, Bishop of Baltimore? Catholics, to 
whom alone the letter was addressed, and 
who know the voice of their pastor, were at 
no loss to recognize him. Others, into whose 
hands the curious performance, (so Liberal 
styles it,) may have fallen, received a fair 
and honest caution to be upon their guard, by 



132 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OP THE 

the addition of these words to the obnoxious 
title : With the approbation of the Holy See, 
Bishop of Baltimore. When Protestant, 
Methodist, or if they will pardon the expres- 
sion, Presbyterian bishops, profess to hold 
their bishoprieks under the same approbation 
of the see apostolic, it maybe necessary to 
use some farther discrimination. 

" In this very town, we have a Bank of Ma- 
ryland, and a Baltimore Insurance Office. In 
the principles of Liberal, stockholders in these 
establishments infringe the civil right of their 
countrymen and fellow-citizens, for to be 
consistent, he must allow, that these denomi- 
nations import an arrogant claim of monopo- 
lizing all banking transactions in the state, 
and making insurances, exclusively of all 
competition, in the town of Baltimore. And 
yet, I am sure that neither the holders of 
shares formed pretensions so extravagant, 
nor was it the intention of the legislature, 
which incorporated them, to debar other ad- 
venturers from making similar speculations, 
or assuming the same name and title, if they 
chose it. 

" So likewise, let who will, in other reli- 
gious professions, call themselves Bishops of 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 133 

Baltimore, it will excite neither regret nor 
opposition in him who is now known by that 
denomination. Indeed, considering his line 
of episcopal succession, and source of spiritual 
jurisdiction, he will think his own the best 
founded claim ; but, if others judge differently, 
he will not accuse them of invading his civil 
rights : much less will he insinuate, that they 
are guilty of presumption ; and less still will 
he provoke them with a threat, or denounce 
against them a return for their temerity. He 
conceives, that they would treat such threats, 
from him, with contempt, and therefore, he- 
entertains the same sentiment for those of 
Liberal. 

" The bishop is at a loss to find out any pas- 
sage or expression, in his letter, which could 
furnish a shadow of pretence to Liberal for 
saying, that he (the bishop) absolutely ex- 
cludes from the appellation of christians all 
who are not within the pale of his church. If 
such a passage can be pointed out, the bishop 
will be the first to condemn it : since, so far 
from embracing this opinion, as an article of 
his faith, he holds the doctrine directly con- 
trary to it to be that of his church, to which 
he and all Catholics are bound to submit : 
12 



134 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OP THE 

and which Catholics have constantly main- 
tained, in opposition to the tenets of some 
pretended reformers. But to remove more 
effectually the impression, which the asser- 
tions of Liberal may have made on those who 
have not seen the bishop's pastoral letter, 
(and few, but Catholics, for whom alone it 
was intended, have seen it) some copies shall 
be left, to be disposed of, at Mr. Angell's 
printing office. 

11 Here it was intended to have made a 
conclusion, but Liberal having quaintly in- 
troduced the term aristocrats, the bishop 
would fain ask whether it was done to raise 
a hue and cry against the episcopal office, 
by bringing into use amongst us that invidi- 
ous and misapplied appellation, which has 
caused a ferocious mob to disgrace the char- 
acter of a most humane people, and has let 
them loose on such men as La Fayette and 
the venerable Rochefoucauld ? If such be 
the intention of Liberal, he had better trans- 
port himself to a country where he may 
meet congenial souls ; America, I trust, has 
too much regard for justice, and understands 
too well the principles of religious equality, 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 135 

to obey his impulse, or catch the contagion 
of his spirit. 

" The subject of this contention is so tri- 
fling in itself, and it affords so much room for 
ridicule, that, if Liberal take up his pen 
again, he must appear with something more 
material to engage the farther attention of 
" John, Bishop of Baltimore. 

« November 21, 1792." 

Shortly after the death of the archbishop, 
a writer in the Democratic Press of Phila- 
delphia indulged himself in some commenta- 
ries upon the obnoxious title, which had 
been used in designating the deceased, in the 
short obituary notice that was published in 
the Baltimore papers upon that lamentable 
occasion ; mingling, however, with his stric- 
tures expressions of great respect and vene- 
ration for his character and memory. That 
writer might have seen, if he wished it, in 
the steps which had led to the appointment 
of a Catholic bishop for the United States, 
how groundless were his alarms, and decided 
proof, likewise, that the Roman Catholic 
clergy are no less actuated than the clergy 
of any other religious persuasion in the 
United States, by a just and liberal respect 



136 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

and regard for the institutions and laws of 
this country. 

Desirous of impressing upon our readers a 
conviction of the liberality of the bishop, and 
of presenting to them the real and orthodox 
views of the Roman Catholic Church on the 
all-important subject of spiritual and tempo- 
ral jurisdiction, w 7 e make a brief extract 
from one of his pastoral letters, dated Balti- 
more, February 22, 1797. 

He says on this subject that : " It has been 
always the uniform endeavor of the open and 
secret enemies of the Catholic Church to 
represent the spiritual supremacy of Christ's 
vicar in the most odious light ; and I was not 
surprised to hear that the turbulent men 
who foment the present disturbances have 
declared themselves independent of it, as of 
a foreign jurisdiction. By using these words 
they not only manifest the spirit by which 
they are governed, but they hope to render 
obnoxious to our fellow-citizens an essential 
tenet of our religion, and all of us w 7 ho pro- 
fess it; a tenet, which is the bond of our 
union; which cements and keeps together, 
in the profession of the same faith, in the 
celebration of the same solemn and public 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 137 

worship, and under one uniform government 
established by Jesus Christ and perpetuated 
by succeeding pastors, so many different na- 
tions, so different from each other, and un- 
connected in every other respect. 

"There would indeed be a foundation for 
the reproach intended by the words, foreign 
jurisdiction, if we acknowledge in the suc- 
cessor of St. Peter, any power or preroga- 
tive which clashed in the least degree with 
the duty we owe to our country, or its laws. 
To our country we owe allegiance, and the 
tender of our best services and property? 
when they are necessary for its defence ; to 
the vicar of Christ, we owe obedience in 
things purely spiritual. Happily, there is no 
competition, in their respective claims on us, 
nor any difficulty in rendering to both the 
submission which they have a right to claim. 
Our country commands and enforces by out- 
ward coercion, the services which tend to 
the preservation and defence of that personal 
security, and of that property, for the sake 
of which political societies were formed, and 
men agreed to live under the protection of, 
and in obedience to civil government. The 
vicar of Christ, as visible head of his church, 
12* 



138 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

watches over the integrity and soundness of 
doctrine and makes use of means and wea- 
pons, that act only on the souls of men, to 
enforce the duties of religion, the purity of 
worship, and ecclesiastical discipline/ 7 

Such were the doctrines, as declared by 
its first bishop in this country, of the Ro- 
man Catholic Church, and such are those 
now entertained by the entire clergy and 
laity of that communion. And we cannot 
see any thing therein, which should induce 
others to look upon its members as suspicious 
and unsafe citizens, or doubt for a moment 
that their Catholic brethren, in the day of 
need, under the guidance and injunctions of 
their creed and ministers, will be found as 
ready and anxious to defend and support by 
word and deed, the beloved institutions of 
their own free land, as were their Catholic 
ancestors who fought and bled in the cause 
of American independence. 

The talents that distinguished and the 
zeal in the service of virtue and religion 
which had marked his conduct in all former 
situations, were an abundant pledge of the 
wisdom and edification of his course, in the 
arduous and difficult career upon which he 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 139 

had now entered, as bishop of the Roman 
Catholic Church in the United States ; and 
we may venture to say that never was pledge 
better redeemed or the high expectations of 
a numerous society more fully realised. 

The whole tenor of his life having been 
illustrated by acts of consummate virtue, re- 
gulated by a spirit of liberality, conciliation 
and charity, his administration of the diocess 
of Baltimore perfectly corresponded, and w T as 
in unison, with his former course. Although 
considerably advanced in life, he visited once 
almost every quarter of his diocess, compre- 
hending the whole extent of the United 
States, and every year made fatiguing jour- 
nies through parts of it, — to form a correct 
and candid estimate of the characters and 
fitness of the several pastors, — to examine 
into the state and condition of the various 
congregations under their charge, to adminis- 
ter to the members composing them the sa- 
crament of confirmation, and to bestow upon 
and leave with all his cordial benedictions. 

Every year likewise the theological school 
at Baltimore, and the college at Georgetown, 
those two objects of his warmest attachment 
and special care, furnished new candidates 



140 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

for holy orders, and zealous clergymen, by 
which new laborers w T ere constantly added 
to the vineyard that under Providence, 
had become extensively planted through the 
United States by his piety and exertions ; 
and which continued to be successfully cul- 
tivated, through his wise and prudent man- 
agement. 

Every year these two excellent institu- 
tions prosperously went on, enlarging the 
sphere of their usefulness, and sending forth 
pupils thoroughly prepared for the struggles 
of life, and imbued with a rational and deep 
attachment to their native country and its 
institutions, thus carrying sweet consolation 
to the heart of the prelate, who had founded 
and watched over their welfare, and effecting 
the object which was so near and dear to 
him, of rendering the Catholic youth of this 
republic independent of the old world, by 
bringing the means of improvement and in- 
struction within the reach of all. 

Whilst busily occupied in the more active 
and important duties of his station, our zeal- 
ous prelate lost no opportunity of defending 
his church from the attacks made upon it by 
those who saw its increase with sorrow and 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 141 

envy. From many articles circulated through 
the prints of the day, we select the following 
additional proof, if more be required, of the 
sincere liberality of their writer. 

Addressing the editors of the Columbian 
Magazine, he says: "I purchase and read 
your magazine, vrhen convenient, because I 
wish well to every undertaking for the ad- 
vancement of useful knowledge amongst my 
countrymen. But I am sorry to find that 
some of your correspondents endeavor to ren- 
der your w r ork the vehicle of disingenuity, and 
to taint it with the poison of religious ran- 
cor. They care not, it seems, how much 
they misrepresent facts and doctrines, pro- 
vided they can bring disrepute on the party, 
which they have devoted to contempt. Per- 
haps they may have further views, and wish 
to renew 7 the days of intolerance. One of 
them sends you a fabricated history of Car- 
dinal Tusloue, who never existed, and which 
you inserted in a former magazine ; this his- 
tory he enriched with inflammatory com- 
ments; but he had neither justice nor candor 
enough to undeceive your readers by inform- 
ing them that the whole was a malicious 
fable. I must waive ceremony so far, as to 



142 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

remind you, that you come in yourself for a 
share of this blame. For having published 
so false a relation, it became you to correct 
your mistake, after you found that it was 
contradicted in the foreign prints, which sug- 
gested the first lines of invention to your im- 
proving correspondent. A very small part 
of your monthly miscellany is devoted to the 
article of JVews, and for this you are com- 
mendable : we can readily refer to other col- 
lections for that commodity. But when you 
condescend to relate events of modern times, 
you might once in a month, make selection 
of a few articles of undoubted credit, and 
general importance, and not deal out the ma- 
licious and mischief-making forgeries of per- 
secuting Europeans. Thanks to the genuine 
spirit of Christianity, the United States have 
banished intolerance from their systems of 
government, and many of them have done 
the justice to every denomination of chris- 
tians, which ought to be done to them in all, 
of placing them on the same footing of citi- 
zenship, and conferring an equal right of 
participation in national privileges — freedom 
and independence — acquired by the united 
efforts, and cemented with the mingled blood 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 143 

of Protestant and Catholic fellow-citizens, 
should be equally enjoyed by all. The Jer- 
sey state was the first, which in forming her 
new constitution gave the unjust example of 
reserving to Protestants alone the preroga- 
tives of government and legislation. At 
that very time the American army swarmed 
with Roman Catholic soldiers, and the world 
would have held them justified, had they 
withdrawn themselves from the defence of a 
state which treated them with so much cru- 
elty and injustice, and which they then ac- 
tually covered from the depredations of the 
British army. But their patriotism was too 
disinterested to hearken to the first impulse 
of even just resentment. They could not 
believe that the state which was foremost to 
injure them, would continue, or that any 
others would imitate her partial and iniqui- 
tous policy. It seems they were not ac- 
quainted with the bitter spirit which dic- 
tated the unjustifiable exclusion; they trust- 
ed to the wise and generous sentiment which 
pervaded every corner of the American con- 
tinent. For who that remembers our cordial 
unanimity in rejecting the claims of foreign 
oppression, could imagine that any of us 



144 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

would impose on fellow-soldiers and citizens 
the degraded mark of distrust or galling 
yoke of inferiority? Such, however, was 
the treatment they found, not because they 
were less warm or less profuse of their blood 
in defence of our common rights ; but be- 
cause the authors of this injustice who could 
resent and oppose British counsels, levelled 
against their own rights of legislation, w 7 anted 
the greater fortitude of emancipating their 
minds from a slavish subjection to the preju- 
dices imbibed during a narrowed British 
education." 

It was in consequence of the declaration 
of such enlarged sentiments, common to him 
and his fellow Catholics, that he wrote and 
forwarded to the father of his country, the 
following address, clothed with the signature 
of some of the leading members of his church, 
honorable alike to its object and to those 
from whom it emanated : 

"To George Washington, President of the U. States: 
" THE ADDRESS OP THE ROMAN CATHOLICS. 

" Sir : — We have been long impatient to 
testify our joy and unbounded confidence, on 
your being called by a unanimous vote, to 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 145 

the first station of a country, in which that 
unanimity could not have been obtained, 
without the previous merit of unexampled 
services, of eminent wisdom and unblemished 
virtue. Our congratulations have not reached 
you sooner because our scattered situation 
prevented the communication and the collect- 
ing of those sentiments which animated every 
breast. But the delay has furnished us with 
the opportunity, not purely of presaging the 
happiness to be expected under your admin- 
istration, but of bearing testimony to that 
which we experience already. It is your 
peculiar talent, in war and in peace, to afford 
security to those who commit their protec- 
tion into your hands. In war, you shield 
them from the ravages of armed hostility : in 
peace, you establish public tranquillity by the 
justice and moderation not less than by the 
vigor of your government. By example as 
well as by vigilance, you extend the influence 
of laws on the manners of our fellow-citizens. 
You encourage respect for religion, and in- 
culcate by words and actions, that principle 
on which the welfare of nations so much de- 
pends, that a superintending Providence go- 
verns the events of the world, and watches 
13 



146 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

over the conduct of men. Your exalted 
maxims and unwearied attention to the moral 
and physical improvement of our country, 
have produced already the happiest effects. 
Under your administration America is ani- 
mated with zeal for the attainment and en- 
couragement of useful literature ; she im- 
proves her agriculture, extends her com- 
merce, and acquires with foreign nations a 
dignity unknown to her before. From these 
happy events, in which none can feel a 
warmer interest than ourselves, we derive 
additional pleasure in recollecting that you, 
sir, have been the principal instrument to 
effect so rapid a change in our political situ- 
ation. This prospect of national prosperity 
is peculiarly pleasing to us on another ac- 
count, because whilst our country preserves 
her freedom and independence, we shall have 
a well founded title to claim from her justice 
equal rights of citizenship, as well the price 
of our blood spilt under your eyes, and of our 
common exertions for her defence, under 
your auspicious conduct ; rights rendered 
more dear to us, by the remembrance of 
former hardships. When we pray for the 
preservation of them, where they have been 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 147 

granted, and expect the full extension of 
them from the justice of those states which 
still restrict them ; when we solicit the pro- 
tection of Heaven over our common country, 
we neither omit, nor can omit recommending 
your preservation to the singular care of Di- 
vine Providence; because we conceive that 
no human means are so available to pro- 
mote the welfare of the United States, as the 
prolongation of your health and life, in which 
are included the energy of your example, 
the wisdom of your counsels, and the persua- 
sive eloquence of your virtues." 

This eloquent and well deserved tribute 
was signed by John Carroll, in behalf of the 
Roman Catholic clergy, Charles Carroll of 
Carrollton, Daniel Carroll, Thomas Fitzsim- 
mons and Dominick Lynch, in behalf of the 
Roman Catholic laity. 

Shortly after his installation the bishop re- 
ceived a letter from a tribe of Indians, about 
four hundred in number, the remains and de- 
scendents of some who had been converted to 
Christianity, and formed under the French 
missionaries, residing on the confines of Mas- 
sachusetts, Canada and Nova Scotia, praying 
earnestly for clergymen. Having sent to 



148 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

Europe for two French priests, who were to 
go and reside amongst them, he transmitted 
to them, through a Mr. Allen, the following 
letter : 

" Baltimore, Sept. 6, 1791. 

" Mr. John Allen : 

"Sir, — Your favor of May 21st, with a 
postscript of the 23d, was not received be- 
fore the 27th of August. I am infinitely- 
obliged to you for your great attention, good- 
ness and charity, in forwarding to me the 
speech of the Indians of whom you bear so 
favorable a testimony. My duty and incli- 
nation concur in urging me to use my utmost 
and earliest endeavors to procure them the 
help which they so earnestly solicit, and let- 
ters are gone already for that purpose. I shall 
be much mistaken, as well as disappointed, 
if those letters produce not the effect de- 
sired ; but some delay must be looked for — 
the clergymen destined for this business are 
now in Europe, and cannot come, I fear, be- 
fore the spring. But when they do come, 
they will, I am confident, give satisfaction. 
I say clergymen, because many reasons have 
induced me to send for two. This will not 



MOST REV, JOHN CARROLL. 149 

increase the charge of the Indians, at least 
not for some years to come — when they will 
be better able to bear it, as their number 
will be probably greater. I had not the 
least knowledge of this tribe of Indians till, 
at a late visit to Boston, I saw a letter respect- 
ing them from you to the Rev. Mr. Thayer. 
" Their attachment to the exercises of re- 
ligion, notwithstanding their long depriva- 
tion of its public functions, their innocent 
lives and their care to instruct their chil- 
dren, are strong proofs of the deep impres- 
sion made on their minds, and as you justly 
observe, do great credit to their former 
French pastor and missionary. My happi- 
ness will be great, if those whom I shall 
expect next spring, w 7 ill walk in the foot- 
steps of their predecessors. Conformably 
to your advice I sent back the crucifix, and 
in addition to all your other kindnesses, re- 
quest you to be so good as to explain my 
letter to them. Your services entitle you to 
all their confidence, and I have made it my 
duty to acknowledge myself with great es- 
teem and respect, sir, 

" Your most obd't and humble serv't, 

"t John, Bishop of Baltimore" 
13* 



150 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

" Brethren and Beloved Children in Jesus Christ : 

" I received with the greatest pleasure the 
testimony of your attachment to your holy 
religion ; and I venerated the sacred crucifix 
sent by you as expressive of your faith. 

(C Brethren and Children: 

"I embrace you with the affection of a 
father, and am exceedingly desirous to pro- 
cure for you a worthy teacher and minister 
of God's holy sanctuary, who may adminis- 
ter to your young people, to your sons and 
daughters, the sacrament of baptism; may 
instruct them and you in the law of God, 
and the exercises of a christian life; may 
reconcile you to your Lord and Maker after 
all your transgressions; and may perform 
for your women after child-bearing the rites 
ordained by the Church of Christ. 

" Brethren and Beloved Children: 

u As soon as I received your request, and 
was informed of your necessity, I sent for 
one or two virtuous and worthy priests to 
go and remain with you — that you may 
never more be reduced to the same distress- 
ful situation, in which you have lived so 
long. But as they are far distant, I am 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 151 

afraid they will not be with you before the 
putting out of the leaves again. This should 
have been done much sooner, if I had been 
informed of your situation. You may de- 
pend upon it, that you shall be always in 
my heart, and in my mind; and if it please 
God to give me time, I will certainly visit 
you myself. 
" Brethren and Beloved Children: 

"I trust in that good God, who made us 
all, and in his blessed Son, Jesus Christ, who 
redeemed us, that all the Indians, north- 
ward and eastward, will be made partakers 
of the blessing which my desire is to procure 
for you ; and I rejoice very much, that you 
and they wish to be united to your brethren, 
the Americans. You have done very well, 
not to receive amongst you those ministers 
who go without being called or sent by that 
authority which Jesus Christ has established 
for the government of this Church. Those 
whom I shall send to you, will be such good 
and virtuous priests as instructed your fore- 
fathers in the law of God, and taught them 
to regard this life only as a preparation for, 
and a passage to a better life in heaven. 

" In token of my fatherly love and sincere 



152 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

affection, I send back to you, after embracing 
it, the holy crucifix which I received with 
your letter, and I enclose it in a picture of 
our holy father, the pope, the head on earth, 
under Christ, of our divine religion ; and this, 
my answer, is accompanied likewise with 
nine medals, representing our divine Lord, 
Jesus Christ, and his Most Holy Mother. I 
desire that these may be received by the 
chiefs of the river St. John, Passamaquoddy, 
and Michmacs, who signed the address to 
me. They came from and have received 
the blessing of our same holy father, the 
vicar of Jesus Christ in the government of 
his Church. 

"That the blessing of God may come 
down upon you, your women and children, 
and remain forever, is the earnest prayer of 
your loving father, friend and servant in 

Christ, 

" t John, Bishop of Baltimore. 
"Baltimore, Sept. 6, 1791." 

In October of this year, in a letter to his 
English correspondent, the bishop informs 
him of some of the steps that were about to 
be taken to secure the progress and perpetu- 
ation of his see in this country. 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 153 

" On the 7th of next month our clergy are 
to meet here in a diocesan synod. Then we 
shall discuss the mode of preserving the suc- 
cession to the episcopacy of the United 
States. Instead of a coadjutor, I am much 
inclined to solicit a division of my diocess 
and the creation of another bishoprick. One 
only objection, of much weight, retards my 
determined resolution in favor of this scheme, 
and that is, that previous to such a step, a 
uniform discipline may be established in all 
parts of this great continent; and every 
measure so firmly concerted, that as little 
danger as possible may remain of a disunion 
with the holy see. I am very fearful of this 
event taking place in succeeding time unless 
it be guarded against by every prudential 
precaution. Our distance, though not so 
great if geometrically measured, as South 
America, Goa and China, yet in a political 
light is much greater. South America, and 
the Portuguese possessions in Africa and 
Asia, have through their metropolitical coun- 
tries, an intermediate connexion with Rome; 
and the missionaries in China are almost all 
Europeans. But we have no European me- 
tropolis, and our clergy soon will be neither 



154 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

Europeans nor have European connexions. 
Then will be the danger of a propension to 
a schismatical separation from the centre of 
unity. But the Founder of the Church sees 
all these things, and can provide the remedy. 
After doing what we can, we must commit 
the rest to his Providence." 

In another letter, about a year subsequent 
to the foregoing, he gives his views upon the 
same subject in the following terms: 

" I have w r ritten to Rome, recommending 
and requesting the erection of another dio- 
cess in the United States : this, I hope, will 
be granted ; if not, I press for the grant of a 
coadjutor. To avoid giving offence to our 
own government, it is proposed to the Pro- 
paganda to allow the ten oldest clergymen 
here, and five others to be nominated by my- 
self, to be the electors of the new bishop, or- 
dinary or coadjutor. But in my solicitude 
to provide for a close and intimate union with 
the holy see, I desire that if the grant be 
made agreeably to request, it may be under 
the express condition of reserving a right in 
the holy see, to reject the person elected, as 
long as one be not elected perfectly agreea- 
ble to it. 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 155 

"I am, I own, principally solicitous to form 
establishments which will be lasting. To 
pass through a village, where a Roman Ca- 
tholic clergyman was never seen before ; to 
borrow of the parson the use of his meeting- 
house or church, in order to preach a ser- 
mon ; to go or send about the village, giving 
notice at every house, that a priest is to 
preach at a certain house, and there to en- 
large on the doctrines of our Church ; this is 
a mode adopted by some amongst us for the 
propagation of religion. But I would rather 
see a priest fixed for a continuance in the 
same place, with a growing congregation un- 
der him, than twenty such itinerant preachers. 
The only effect which I have seen from these, 
is to make people gaze for a time, and say 
that the preacher is a good or a bad one ; but 
as soon as he is gone on his way, to think no 
more about him." 

Having been invited by the unanimous re- 
solution of congress in common with the 
clergy of all denominations and congrega- 
tions of Christians throughout the United 
States, to commemorate the character and 
services of General Washington, who was 
now no more, he delivered, on the 22d of 



156 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

February, 1800, to a crowded audience in the 
Catholic church of St. Peter's at Baltimore, 
a discourse which will be found admirably 
adapted throughout, in the language and 
sentiments, to the character of the distin- 
guished individual who was the subject of it. 

Having been, through the whole contest 
between Great Britain and America, an at- 
tentive observer of its varying and eventful 
incidents, perhaps no person in the United 
States better understood its history, or had 
formed a more correct estimate of the cha- 
racters and conduct of those who were en- 
gaged in it than himself, as well from the 
natural candor and discriminating powers of 
his mind, as from the dispassionate view 
which his situation and circumstances en- 
abled him thus to take of the whole subject; 
and it may be affirmed with truth, that the 
commander in chief of the American armies, 
had not any where a more ardent admirer of 
his conduct than he was. 

Independently of these circumstances, there 
was a singular propriety in his offering, as he 
did, on the melancholy occasion referred to, 
the tribute of respect, to the memory, and of 
well deserved eulogium, upon the character 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 157 

of that illustrious hero and statesman, from 
the double consideration that his comprehen- 
sive and enlarged mind qualified him for the 
task, if ihat of any individual in the United 
States were equal to it, and that as he was 
at the head of a numerous religious com- 
munity, second to none in patriotism and 
exertions during the revolutionary war, in 
the common cause of their country, he was 
the natural and appropriate organ of their 
feelings and sentiments upon that occasion. 

It was in speaking of this address, that 
Mr. Robert Walsh uses the following strong 
and descriptive language : 

" We have heard from some of the most 
intelligent and observant of his auditors, 
when he delivered his masterly funeral pane- 
gyric on Washington, in which he recited 
the terrors, the encouragements, the dis- 
tresses, and the glories of the struggle for 
independence, that he appeared to be labor- 
ing under intense emotions correspondent to 
those topics — to be swayed like the aged 
minstrel of the poet, with contagious influ- 
ences, by the varied strains which he ut- 
tered." 



14 



158 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

The following verses were written u on 
reading Archbishop CarroWs Eulogium on 
General Washington" 

" Sweet is the voice of praise 

E'en when youthful tongues, 

Impell'd by loyal hearts and wond'ring minds, 

With virtuous zeal applaud the brave or wise : 

But sweeter far and dearer to the soul 

Of the high warrior or the sage profound, 

Is the eulogium of a holy man, 

Whose reverend years and sanctity disdain 

A worldly motive for the fame he gives." 

DISCOURSE. 

" When the death of men distinguished by 
superior talents, high endowments, and emi- 
nent services to their country, demands the 
expression of public mourning and grief, their 
loss is accompanied, generally, with this miti- 
gation, that however grievous and painful, it 
is not irreparable ; and that the void caused 
by their mortality will, perhaps, be filled up 
by others, uniting equal abilities with the 
same zeal and watchfulness for the general 
welfare. Hope then wipes off the tears, 
with which sorrow bedews the grave of de- 
parted worth. But on the present occasion, 
no such consolation can be administered; 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 159 

for he, whose expectations are most san- 
guine, dares not promise again to his coun- 
try the union of so many splendid and useful 
virtues as adorned that illustrious man, 
whose memory excites our grateful and ten- 
der sensibility, and to whose tomb the hom- 
age of his country is to be solemnly offered 
on this day. Whether we consult our own 
experience, by bringing into comparison with 
Washington any of our cotemporaries, most 
eminent for their talents, virtues and ser- 
vices, or whether we search through the 
pages of history, to discover in them a cha- 
racter of equal fame, justice and truth will 
acknowledge that he stands supereminent 
and unrivalled in the annals of mankind^ 
and that no one before him, acting in such a 
variety of new and arduous situations, bore 
with him to the grave a reputation as clear 
from lawiess ambition, and as undefiled by 
injustice or oppression: a reputation, nei- 
ther depressed by indolence, nor weakened 
by irresolution, nor shadowed by those im- 
perfections, which seemed to be the essential 
appendages of human nature, till Providence 
exhibited in Washington this extraordinary 
phenomenon. 



160 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

" What language can be equal to the ex- 
cellence of such a character ? what propor- 
tion can exist between eloquence and the 
tribute of praise, clue to so much virtue 1 
Nevertheless, my fellow-citizens, I read in 
the eargerness of your attention, your desire 
to offer this tribute. Methinks I hear your 
filial piety, your tender reverence for your 
best friend, the father of his country, calling 
on me to bear for you, at least, a feeble tes- 
timony of your unextinguishable gratitude for 
his services, your immortal remembrance of, 
and veneration for his virtues. In your name, 
therefore, I presume to add some grains of in- 
cense to the homage, which throughout the 
United States every friend to their happi- 
ness now presents at the shrine of Washing- 
ton. Pardon, O departed spirit of the first 
of heroes ! if with the cold accents of an 
exhausted imagination, I likewise dare at- 
tempt to celebrate thy name, whilst so many 
sons of genius, ardent in youthful vigor, de- 
lineate in glowing colors the vivid features 
of thy mind, and the glorious deeds of thy 
virtuous life. With unequal steps, I venture 
on the same career, not seeking to add lustre 
to the fame of Washington, or perpetuate his 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 161 

memory to future times; for he is already 
enshrined in the records of immortality ; but 
humbly hoping, that a recital of his services 
will open to our countrymen the road to true 
honor, and kindle in their breasts the warmth 
of generous emulation and real patriotism. 
To contribute in this manner to the best in- 
terests of his beloved country, will be to him 
the most gratifying commendation, if in the 
regions of immortality, human affairs still 
claim a share of his solicitude. 

" The language uniformly held by Wash- 
ington, the maxim invariably inculcated and 
repeated by him in almost every public mani- 
festation of his sentiments, was the acknow- 
ledgment of a superintending Providence, 
preparing, regulating and governing all hu- 
man events, for the accomplishment of its 
eternal purposes, and predisposing the instru- 
ments by which they are to be effected. 
Religion and observation had taught him 
that God's provident wisdom reachethfrom 
end to end mightily and disposeth all things 
siceetly. Wis. viii. He contemplated with 
christian piety, and the philosophy of a sage, 
the most remarkable revolutions and occur- 
rences of former, as well as his own times, 
14* 



162 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

and learned therefrom to refer every human 
event to the moral government of a supreme 
intelligent Being. This became the polar 
star, by which he was guided in his progress 
through life, and in all his anxious solicitude 
for maintaining the liberty, perfecting the 
policy, preserving the peace, insuring the sta- 
bility of his country on the foundations of 
order and morality, and guarding it against 
the turbulence of faction, licentiousness, 
foreign hostility and artifice. 

" This virtuous maxim of religious, moral 
and political wisdom, so deeply impressed on 
him, never perhaps was more illustrated, than 
by the course of Providence in preparing and 
adapting his body and mind to suit the des- 
tinies of his life. He was to himself a lumi- 
nous proof of that truth, which was so rooted 
in his soul. 

" That infinite knowledge, which in its com- 
prehensive range through the whole extent 
of creation, embraces the future, no less dis- 
tinctly, than past and present contingencies, 
beheld the period approaching, when this 
vast portion of America, now constituting the 
United States,— this country spread through 
so many climates, — so diversified in its pro- 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 163 

ductions, — so abundant in natural resources, 
—so benefited by land and water, — so ad- 
mirably calculated for the employment of in- 
dustry, and for affording subsistence to mil- 
lions and millions, was to break the bonds of 
its ancient connection with Great Britain, 
and emancipated from vassalage, elevate it- 
self to the station of a great, and powerful 
empire ! 

" A convulsion so violent in the political 
system of Europe and America, involved 
the demolition of deeply rooted habits and 
opinions. The associations arising out of 
consanguinity, habitual intercourse, unity of 
government, identity of laws, language and 
religion, were to be melted down, before that 
wonderful revolution could be completed. A 
new people unconscious before of their own 
strength, were to feel in their physical and 
moral energies the ripeness of manhood. 
Accustomed to respect the nation, with 
which they would have to contend, as irre- 
sistible in arms, and inexhaustible in re- 
sources, they must dare nevertheless to make 
the vigorous effort, and conceive a reliance 
on their own native strength. Powerful in- 
terests, the necessary effects of long estab- 



164 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

lished government, would naturally coun- 
teract every tendency towards its downfall ; 
but these interests were to be resisted by 
force, and borne down by the enthusiastic 
ardor of patriotism. 

" To superintend the movements and opera- 
tions of such a revolution : to control during 
its progress, jealousies, enmities, suspicions 
and other conflicting passions ; and from their 
collision, to educe national and individual 
prosperity, peace, order, liberty and regular 
government, required the discernment and 
masterly contrivance of that Supreme Direc- 
tor and Artist, who unites together the links, 
and holds in his hands the chain of all human 
events. Contemplating, as much as is al- 
lowed to feeble mortals, his divine agency in 
preparing the means and conducting the pro- 
gress of the American revolution, we may 
presume to say, that heaven impressed a 
character on the life of Washington, and a 
temper on his soul, which eminently qualified 
him to bear the most conspicuous part, and 
be its principal instrument in accomplishing 
this stupendous work. 

We trace as far back as to his early youth, 
the evidences of this Providential interposi- 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 165 

tion. Born in times and circumstances un- 
favorable to the spirit and exertions of bold 
enterprize, he however soon devoted him- 
self to useful and active exercises. He 
disdained the inglorious ease and ignoble 
pursuits, which fettered or perverted the 
talents of his young countrymen, inactive, 
not through choice, but wanting objects 
and encouragement. To deliver Washing- 
ton from the danger of contracting similar 
habits, he was inspired to embrace the hardy 
discipline of difficult and perilous labors, 
which added vigor to his constitution, and a 
robustness to his nerves, that never after 
shrunk from danger. Following the instinct 
of his towering genius, he had not reached 
the years of manhood, when he was engaged 
in enterprizes pregnant with terror, and pre- 
senting to his view objects of a most formida- 
ble aspect. He did not however enter on 
them with thoughtless temerity. At that 
early period he began, what he persisted in 
through life, to associate motives of pub- 
lic utility with magnanimous undertakings. 
The usual occupations of his young country- 
men were not sufficient employment for his 
active mind ; he therefore turned his views 



166 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

towards that vast western region, now so fa- 
miliar to our ears and acquaintance, but then 
known only by the terrors it inspired, and 
the cruelties practised by the savage Indians, 
lurking in its forests and recesses. He left 
the endearments of society, to explore the 
courses of rivers, to traverse plains and moun- 
tains far beyond the then inhabited frontiers ; 
hoping to discover sources, whence future 
opulence might flow to his country, — to ex- 
amine the productions, and estimate the fer- 
tility of immense tracts, capable of rewarding 
the industry of thousands, pining in want and 
oppression in foreign lands ; whose descend- 
ants might people the wilderness, beautify it 
by cultivation, and multiply the resources of 
his native province. In these achievements, 
the heroic youth was to inure himself to 
hunger and thrist, to lie on the damp earth 
without any covering but the spreading 
branches of the oak and the canopy of the 
heavens ; to accustom himself to the vicissi- 
tudes of the seasons, the parching heat and 
chilling frost ; to herd with the beasts of the 
forest ; to be exposed to the tomahawk and 
scalping knife ; to be surrounded by difficul- 
ties, yet never to be disheartened; to meet at 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 167 

every step the image of death, without ever 
being appalled, or admitting a momentary 
sentiment of dispair. 

" Imagine not, my fellow-citizens, that this 
is an ideal and fanciful representation of 
Washington's youthful years. No! it is 
faintly, but truly copied from real scenes of 
his life. Who, on the wing of imagination , 
has followed him, clambering over the lofty 
western mountains, fording unfathomed and 
rapid rivers, exposing his invaluable life to 
innumerable accidents of treachery and hos- 
tility, without shuddering for his existence, 
and admiring his cool, collected courage, in 
conquering obstacles, and surmounting dan- 
ger ? Such was the training and education, 
by which Providence prepared him for the 
fulfilment of his future destinies. 

" Far different from this, were the motives 
which urged the youth of Sparta and Rome 
to encounter toils of danger and opposition. 
They obeyed the institutions of their coun- 
try ! they were stimulated by the goad of 
aspiring ambition, and a desire of acquiring 
that false glory, which, in the erroneous opin- 
ions of their cotemporaries attached itself 
to the men, who carried devastation and 



168 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

carnage into the bowels of neighboring 
nations. With better views, and superior 
courage, Washington penetrated into the in- 
hospitable confines of the savage Indian, 
that he might render them the abodes of 
peace, and introduce into their bosom the 
improvements of civilization. So success- 
fully the guardian angel of this chosen 
youth, ministering to the designs of Provi- 
dence, had infused already into his soul the 
sweet spirit of benevolence, together with 
heroical fortitude. 

" For him it was decreed, in the progres- 
sion of his life, to defend, and ultimately to 
establish, by just and necessary warfare, the 
liberties of his country. Providence there- 
fore permitted a train of occurrences to en- 
sue, which served to furnish his mind with 
the first rudiments of military science, and 
discipline him to the vigilance and profes- 
sion of a soldier. At that time, two pow- 
erful European nations held North America 
in their subjection ; their territories bordered 
on each other, and each claimed rights, dis- 
allowed by its rival power. One of these, 
France, sent out a military force and her 
Indian allies, to occupy posts deemed to be 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 169 

within the territory of Virginia, and conti- 
guous to the stations selected by Washing- 
ton, as best adapted to the protection of his 
native land; for his intrepidity and local 
knowledge had already placed him at the 
head of a small body of his countrymen, 
collected together to stop the progress of the 
invaders. With those he covered the inha- 
bitants from hostile encroachment, he won 
the confidence of the savage Indian, and 
conducted a dangerous and intricate nego- 
tiation for a suspension of hostilities. 

" But the durable preservation of peace 
depended not on the counsels of America; 
England and France transported their en- 
mity to her shores, and covered our country 
with hostile array. England, confident of 
her prowess and the discipline of her armies, 
would not commit the defence of her inter- 
ests to raw provincials. Washington's ar- 
dent soul suffered him not to remain behind 
in safety, w T hile the security of his country 
was at stake. The hand of Providence 
lead him forward, that he might add to his 
experience and native fortitude. He fought 
under Braddock ; and that ill-fated com- 
mander having paid by his death the tribute 
15 



170 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

of his rashness — his army, dispirited by de- 
feat and flying before an enemy flushed with 
victory — Washington, in that perilous mo- 
ment, gathered round him his first compan- 
ions in arms, and rescued out of the jaws 
of death, the remains of the vanquished bat- 
tallions. He did more; he stood in the front 
of danger, and every where opposing him- 
self to the merciless savages, ready to burst 
as a dark cloud, fraught with the thunder- 
bolts of heaven, on a terrified land, he 
averted the storm, and restored to his trem- 
bling country the serenity of hope and 
peace. 

" The theatre of war was transported af- 
terwards to distant provinces of America. 
Then the same all-wise Providence, which 
had inured him to danger, prepared him for 
the toils of government, and the important 
duty of superintending in his riper years, the 
political administration of a great and widely 
extended people. His services in the field 
had won the confidence of his fellow-citizens ; 
they committed to his vigilance and integrity 
their highest interests in their legislative as- 
sembly. In this school he perfected himself 
in the knowledge of mankind ; he observed 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 171 

\ 

the contentions of parties, the artifices and 
conflicts of human passions ; he saw the 
necessity of curbing them by salutary re- 
straints, he studied the complicated science 
of legislation, he learned to venerate the 
sanctity of laws, to esteem them as the pal- 
ladium of civil society, and deeply imbibed 
this maxim, so important for the soldier and 
the statesman, and which he ever after made 
the rule of his conduct, that the armed de- 
fenders of their country would break up the 
foundations of social order and happiness, if 
they availed themselves of the turbulence of 
war, to violate the rights of private property 
and personal liberty. 

" Thus Washington, during the interval of 
peace, stored his mind with the treasures of 
political wisdom. The time was approach- 
ing for him to expend those treasures on his 
country's w T elfare. 

" I need not recapitulate the origin of the 
discontents between Great Britain and her 
American dependencies. Suffice it to say, 
that America received the claims of the 
parent country, as incompatible with her 
freedom and happiness. The great soul of 
Washington revolted at the idea of national 



172 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

degradation ; but tempering his ardor with 
deliberate wisdom, he associated with other 
sages of his country, to meditate on her new 
and critical situation. 

" Here let us pause, fellow citizens, to con- 
template this exalted man revolving in his 
breast the natural and social rights of human 
kind : comparing those with actual and im- 
pending grievances, and with the obligations 
of an allegiance due to a long established 
government. Had lawless ambition reigned 
in his breast, he would have decided the pub- 
lic voice for immediate hostility. But in this 
point also, Providence destined him to leave 
a memorable and salutary example. He 
was not dazzled by the prospect of being 
elevated to the chief command of the mili- 
tary force of America. In his opinion, no- 
thing could justify a recurrence to the sword, 
and a revolt from established authority, but 
extreme necessity. All resonable means of 
redress should be tried, before a good citizen 
will dissolve the fabric of government, and 
expose a people to the convulsive shocks of 
a revolution, the explosions of which no con- 
siderate man can promise himself to regu- 
late, or foresee their termination. 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 173 

" A reflection here forces itself upon my 
mind, which I ought not to withhold from my 
respectable auditors. Would to God, that 
the principal authors and leaders of the many 
revolutions, through which unhappy France 
has passed in the course of a few years — 
would to God, that they had been influenced 
by a morality as pure and enlightened as 
that of Washington, and his associates in the 
first congress ! What scenes of carnage and 
cruelty ! what private woes and public ca- 
lamity would have been spared to that ill- 
fated country ! — and how sacred and venera- 
ble would have still remained to it the sanc- 
tuary of religion ! 

" Washington and his colleagues obeying 
at the same time the dictates of patriotism 
and the duty of allegiance, represented their 
wrongs to their sovereign and claimed their 
rights. On the event of their remonstrance, 
depended the redress of their grievances ; or, 
if no redress followed, their justification for 
standing on their defence. Britain w^ould 
not relent, and all that remained to America, 
was submission or resistance. The election 
was soon made : every one prepared himself 
for the awful contest, and all eyes and hopes 
15* 



174 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OP THE 

were turned towards Washington. With 
universal approbation he was summoned to 
place himself in the front of danger, and as- 
sume supreme military command. The pos- 
session of such a citizen at a moment so 
critical, was an invaluable treasure, and an 
animating presage of the favorable issue of 
the great contest. 

"But far other thoughts absorbed his at- 
tention. Modest, as he was eminent in valor 
and wisdom, he contemplated with mingled 
emotions of self-diffidence and generous resolu- 
tion, the important stake placed in his hands ; 
the subjection or independence: the vassalage 
or freedom of an immense territory, destined 
to be the habitation of countless millions. 
When therefore, in obedience to the voice of 
his country, he placed himself at the head of 
her army, the expressions of his dependence 
on Providence should never be forgotten. 
Claiming no personal merit, apprehensive of 
injuring the public interest through some 
misconduct ; yet trusting to the justice of his 
cause, and conscious of the purity of his mo- 
tives, he called upon his fellow citizens to 
remember that he depended for success, not 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 175 

on his own military skill, but on the God of 
battles, to whom he made his solemn appeal. 

" Washington, now at a period of his high- 
est elevation, drew on him the attention, not 
only of this western continent, but of every 
European nation. O fellow citizens ! what 
days and years of anxious disquietude re- 
volved over us, whilst we gazed on this splen- 
did luminary, uncertain whether it would 
shed on its country the effulgence of victory 
and peace, crowned by liberty ; or w r hether 
its brightness would be shadowed by the 
clouds of disaster and defeat ! 

" Here language fails : I dare not, I cannot 
follow the heroic Washington in the career 
of his military glory. To baffle the strata- 
gems of the ablest generals, to repel the 
onset of the bravest and best disciplined 
armies, what had America to place in his 
hands ? — neither soldiers trained to arms, nor 
accustomed to subordination ; nor the imple- 
ments of war, nor the treasures to purchase 
them. But the genius of the commander 
finally supplied every deficiency. He intro- 
duced order and discipline : inspired love and 
confidence ; and with these auxiliaries, he 
kept together unclothed and unpaid armies, 



176 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

which, under other generals, would perhaps 
have demanded justice at the point of their 
bayonets. Always vigilant to foil hostile at- 
tempts, he exhausted the resources of the 
enemy, without suffering them to force him 
to action. Tender of the blood of his fellow 
soldiers, and never exposing their lives with- 
out cause, or prospect of advantage, hu- 
manity was as dear to him as victory ; as 
his enemies, that fell into his power, always 
experienced. When a decree of retaliation 
became necessary to restrain their licentious 
excesses, with what delicacy, without the 
least abatement of fortitude, did he save the 
life of the victim, devoted to atone for the 
cruelty that had been committed on an 
American officer ! — not however, till he had 
compelled the opposing general to restrain 
and disavow outrages, that aggravate so 
much the necessary evils of war. How 
sacred was his respect to the civil authority ! 
how effectual his protection of the property 
of his fellow citizens ! When the generous 
feelings of the virtuous and beneficent Lewis, 
whose deplorable fate should draw tears of 
blood from every American heart, sent out 
his nobles and legions, to combat by his side, 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 177 

the dignity of his manners and his unas- 
suming merit, won their entire confidence : 
his integrity and conciliating spirit united, 
as a band of brothers, nations before un- 
known to each other, and totally different in 
manners, habits and religion. Their union, 
of which he was the soul, was a new omen 
of victory, and gained for America the prize 
for which she bled and contended : honorable 
peace and independence. 

" What but unfading laurels remained now 
for Washington, after satisfying his honest 
ambition, and steering the vessel of the 
American Republic through so many storms, 
into the safe harbor of liberty and tran- 
quillity 1 It remained for him to leave this 
important lesson to the chief of armies, vested 
with great commands; that magnanimity 
and true glory consist in laying their swords 
at their country's feet, when the object is at- 
tained, for which alone it was permitted to 
draw them. It remained for him, after ab- 
dicating public employments, to exhibit in 
the shade of retirement those private virtues 
which are the true foundations of national 
prosperity. Dutiful to this moral principle, 
Washington, before he left his army, stipu- 



178 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

lated for no personal reward, and even re- 
fused all that could be offered ; unmindful of 
himself, he was only solicitous to obtain for 
his faithful legions a generous and liberal 
acknowledgment of their constancy and 
valor. This being effected, as far as it de- 
pended on him, he resigned the insignia of 
his command to those, from whom he had 
received it, and resumed the rank of a pri- 
vate citizen, carrying with him into his do- 
mestic retreat, the esteem, respect and vene- 
ration, of an admiring world. 

" Here the curtain drops, and seems to 
close forever from the public eye and public 
duty, this wonderful man. His country has 
no more right to disturb his calm repose ; he 
has paid superabundantly her claim to his 
services. But the views of Providence over 
him are not yet completed ; peace and inde- 
pendence are obtained, but to preserve them, 
experience soon made it manifest, that to 
invigorate with one spirit the vast mass of 
population throughout the United States, one 
general superintending government was es- 
sentially requisite, which saving the rights of 
all, should likewise be competent to com- 
mand the services of all for the public weal ; 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 179 

to maintain order within, and to repel ag- 
gression from abroad, enforce the demands of 
justice, and diffuse over important national 
acts, dignity, energy, unity of design and 
execution. Washington's penetration soon 
discovered the want of such a government, 
and in a paternal, affectionate address to his 
countrymen, had bequeathed on them, as a 
legislator, his earnest recommendation for its 
establishment. 

" Various causes delayed the execution of 
this necessary work, till the edifice of Ame- 
rican independence, unsupported by its ne- 
cessary pillars, was crumbling into ruin ; 
then every friend to his country remembered 
Washington's fatherly advice, every patri- 
otic hand was ready to prop up the tottering 
fabric. Wisdom and experience combined 
to blend in a republican form of government 
all the advantages, of which other forms are 
productive, without many of their evils. 
Our illustrious deliverer presided at the de- 
liberations, which produced it ; the Ame- 
rican people besought him once more to quit 
his beloved retreat, and perfect a work, of 
wiiich he had been the first founder and a 
principal architect. The earnestness of their 



180 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

request overpowered his reluctant mind, he 
could not resist their unanimous wishes, nor 
could any personal dangers stand in compe- 
tition w 7 ith the advancement of general hap- 
piness. Yet how immense were his sacri- 
fices ! how perilous his hazards ! — sacrifices 
known only to them, who having spent their 
best years in transactions, that kept every 
nerve on the stretch, are permitted in the 
evening of their days to taste of the calm 
repose of rural felicity, and the solace of 
domestic endearments. Disheartening was 
the prospect in venturing again on the agi- 
tated ocean of national responsibility. There 
existed not in the world a name so bright as 
his; no character stood on such lofty pre- 
eminence. Shall he expose these to the ca- 
pricious fluctuations of popular opinion? 
Shall he embark the treasure of a reputation 
purchased by so many services, on a sea, 
sown thick with rocks of envy, pride and 
disappointment ? These are sufficient to appal 
a heart less sublime, and less inflamed with 
genuine patriotism. But such considerations 
had no effect on him, and he took into his 
hands the helm of state. 

" What were the effects of his administra- 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 181 

tion ? Are we not deceived by magical delu- 
sion ? or is it the transformation which our 
senses witness, really effected? Have the 
United States risen from a lethargic, impo- 
verished, degraded condition to activity, opu- 
lence and respect ? Does the farmer receive 
a generous retribution for his industry 1 Does 
the merchant cover the seas with his ships, 
conveying to every clime the productions of 
our native soil ? Does the public creditor ob- 
tain security and payment of his generous 
reliance on national faith ? Does justice dis- 
pense her equitable awards to every suitor 
approaching her sanctuary? Do distant na- 
tions respect the counsels, and solicit the 
friendship of the United States ? Are the 
natives of every land wafted to our shores, 
as to the refuge of peace, the residence of 
true liberty ? Yes, fellow citizens, this is not 
delusion — these are the real effects and 
monuments of Washington's administration, 
yet it was thwarted and embarrassed by in- 
ternal opposition and foreign intrigue. Scarce 
had we tasted of the sweets of peace, enliv- 
ened by industry and commerce, when at- 
tempts were made to ravish from us these 
inestimable blessings, and plunge us into the 
16 



182 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

horrors of war; not only of war, but of a 
war of that kind which, connecting our in- 
terests and fate with that of a country de- 
livered up to anarchy and a prey to frantic 
outrageous passions, would have tended to 
extinguish amongst us the principles of mo- 
rality, inflame us with the rage of innova- 
tion, intoxicate us with delusive, ruinous 
theories of government, and most probably, 
would have substituted them to that excel- 
lent constitution which is, and may it long 
continue to be, our pride and happiness! 
But thanks to thy immortal spirit, O ever 
dear and venerable father of thy country ! 
thy wisdom discovered the approaching 
storm, and thy firmness baffled its violence ; 
our peace and constitution remain to us un- 
impaired. No foreign influence dictated to 
the counsels of America. She increased in 
vigor, she rose in character, and by self- 
government, by keeping herself disentangled 
from the strifes of contending nations, she 
evinced herself worthy of her independence. 
" After settling his country in this desirable 
state, Washington had fulfilled the destinies 
of that Providence which had formed him 
for the exalted purpose of diffusing the 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 183 

choicest blessings over millions of men, and 
preparing the same for millions yet unborn. 
His wish to bury himself again in the shades 
of retirement, returned on him with re- 
doubled force ; to hide, if possible, his great- 
ness from the world, and in the sweet repose 
of domestic life, diversified however by use- 
ful and honorable occupations, to forget his 
past glory. The last act of his supreme 
magistracy was to inculcate, in most impres- 
sive language, on his countrymen, or rather 
on his dearest children, this his deliberate 
and solemn advice ; to bear incessantly in 
their minds, that nations and individuals are 
under the moral government of an infinitely 
wise and just Providence; that the founda- 
tions of their happiness are morality and re- 
ligion, and their union amongst themselves 
their rock of safety ; that to venerate their 
constitution and its laws is to insure their 
liberty. Then he took his tender farewell 
of public employments, devoting the remain- 
der of his precious life to a commendable 
self-review of it, through all its vicissitudes 
and agitations, a review for wiiich every 
wise man, knowing his accountability to a 



184 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

Sovereign Judge, should allot time and make 
opportunity. 

"After endeavoring thus far to satisfy our 
common duty to our illustrious deliverer, 
before I conclude, I am earnest, my fellow 
citizens, to leave impressed on you in strong 
characters, some principal features of his 
mind, and furnish you with short memorials 
of his most remarkable actions, hoping 
thereby to perpetuate your gratitude, and 
incite you to emulate his virtues. Happily, 
to supply my inability, I find this task exe- 
cuted, as it would seem, by the spirit of pro- 
phecy, and in the language of inspiration, in 
the eighth chapter of the Book of Wisdom, 
where the author's expressions need no com- 
ment to appropriate them to Washington. 
So striking the resemblance ! so true is the 
picture ! Here are the words of the inspired 
writer: 'I purposed,' says he, 'to take wisdom 
with me to live with me, knowing that she 
will communicate with me of her good 
things, and will be a comfort in my care ; for 
her sake I shall have glory among the mul- 
titude, and honor with the ancient, though I 
am young; and I shall be admired in the 
sight of the mighty, and the faces of princes 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 185 

shall wonder at me. By the means of her I 
shall have immortality, and shall leave be- 
hind me an everlasting memory to them that 
come after me. I shall set the people in 
order, and nations shall be subject to me. 
Terrible kings hearing, shall be afraid of me; 
among the multitude I shall be found good 
and valiant in war. When I go into my 
house, I shall repose myself with her, for her 
conversation hath no bitterness, nor her com- 
pany any tediousness, but joy and gladness. 
Thinking these things with myself, and pon- 
dering them in my heart, that to be allied to 
wisdom, is immortality — I went about seek- 
ing that I might take her to myself.' 

" In this picture, every stroke of the pencil 
exhibits traits of Washington. The early 
maturity of his judgment was the fruit of 
his youthful conferences with wisdom. She 
initiated him into her counsels, and procured 
for him love, respect, honor, confidence, au- 
thority and command: she enabled him to 
set people in order by good government, and 
an impartial, disinterested administration of 
it ; and when, all public duties fulfilled, he 
went to his house to repose himself, no tedious- 
ness or bitterness mingled themselves in their 
16* 



186 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

conversation, but joy and gladness, serenity 
of mind, and the pleasing prospect of con- 
scious integrity. 

" Providence having preserved and length- 
ened his days, that he might rear up his 
country in the infancy of her independence, 
suffered him now to withdraw himself from 
the disquietudes of government. He had in- 
fused the spirit of his administration into all 
its departments. His excellent successor in- 
herited, not only the mantle of his office, but 
his wisdom, firmness and love of peace, sub- 
ordinate only to a determination of never 
purchasing it at the price of national dis- 
honor. 

u Washington beheld from his retirement, 
as the Jewish legislator from the summit of 
Mount Phasga, the flourishing prosperity of 
his country. Health sweetened his repose 
and rural occupations : his body and mind 
retained their usual vigor. We flattered our- 
selves with the expectation of his continu- 
ing long to retain them : joy beamed in our 
hearts, when on every annual revolution w 7 e 
gratefully hailed this, his auspicious birth- 
day. But, alas ! how dark is the cloud, that 
now overshadows it ! The songs of festivity 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 187 

are converted into the throbs of mourning ! 
The prayers of thanksgiving for his health 
and life changed into lamentations for his 
death ! Who feels not for him, as for his 
dearest friend, his protector and his father? 
Whilst he lived, we seemed to stand on loftier 
ground, for breathing the same air, inhabiting 
the same country, and enjoying the same 
constitution and laws, as the sublime and 
magnanimous Washington. He was invest- 
ed with a glory, that shed a lustre on all 
around him. For his country's safety, he 
often had braved death, when clad in her 
most terrific form : he had familiarized him- 
self with her aspect ; at her approaching to 
cut the thread of his life, he beheld her with 
constancy and serenity, and with his last 
breath, as we may believe from knowing the 
ruling passion of his soul, he called to heaven 
to save his country, and recommended it to 
the continual protection of that Providence, 
which he so reverently adored. May his 
prayer have been heard ! May these United 
States flourish in pure and undefiled religion, 
in morality, peace, union and liberty, and the 
enjoyment of their excellent constitution, as 
long as respect, honor and veneration shall 



188 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

gather around the name of Washington: 
that is, whilst there shall be any surviving 
record of human events." 

Bishop Carroll, ever watchful for the wel- 
fare of his Church, and desirous of providing 
a fit edifice for the use and ornament of the 
metropolitan see, having by his exhortations 
and active zeal, prepared in part the means 
of effecting this realization of this great and 
leading undertaking of his declining years, 
commenced the present Cathedral at Balti- 
more, by laying the corner stone, on the 7th of 
July, 1806, with the appropriate pomp and 
ceremony. This large and imposing temple, 
although not yet finished, is worthy of its 
rank as the metropolitan church of the Ro- 
man Catholic faith in this country, and does 
great credit to its architect, B. H. Latrobe, 
Esq., under whose superintendence it was 
erected. 

In the administration of his diocess, it had 
been the good fortune of our bishop to find 
zealous and worthy co-laborers in the cause 
of religion, and amongst these good and holy 
men, whose memory is preserved in the dio- 
cesses which they illustrated with their vir- 
tues, and extended by their enterprising ef- 









MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 189 

forts, there is one prelate in particular whose 
association with the subject of our notice, 
was honorable to both, and productive of the 
greatest benefit to their Church in this coun- 
try. Our readers will pardon us for making 
the following extracts from the " Life of Car- 
dinal de Cheverus, archbishop of Bordeaux, 
by the Rev. J. Hone Dubourg," which in- 
teresting and able work has been translated 
in a masterly manner by Robert M. Walsh, 
Esq., of Philadelphia. 

We begin with the arrival of this so much 
regretted luminary of the Church at Boston, 
in the year 1795, a few years after Bishop 
Carroll had entered upon the discharge of 
his duties, and beg the reader to observe how 
much these two good men resembled each 
other in their unobtrusive piety, christian 
humility, active zeal, and happy faculty of 
conciliating the good will of all who knew 
them of every denomination, and thus win- 
ning for their then misrepresented and des- 
pised religion, a liberal and respectful recep- 
tion. 

" His escape from death, " says his biogra- 
pher, " rendered M. de Cheverus still more 
eager to consecrate entirely to God the 



190 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

davs which his Providence had saved — the 
promptings of the zeal which called him to 
other lands became still more powerful. 
Whilst occupied with such thoughts he re- 
ceived a letter from the Abbe Matignon, a 
former professor in the Sorbonne w T hom he 
had known in Paris. This excellent clergy- 
man, not less estimable for his piety than his 
talents, for his zeal than his prudence, was 
alone at Boston, where he had been placed 
by Mr. Carroll, the Bishop of Baltimore, who 
had then the whole United States under 
his ecclesiastical jurisdiction ; and with the 
charge of the city, he had that also of the 
tribes of the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy 
Indians. Dismayed at the trust so much 
above the strength of a single individual, and 
still more at the hostility of more than thirty 
religious sects, all animated with the most 
violent hatred against what they termed Pa- 
pistry, he was anxious to obtain an assistant 
to divide with him the heavy burden. The 
difficulty w 7 as to find a proper one ; for every 
priest was not calculated for a country im- 
bued with such prepossessions against the 
Catholic clergy. It was requisite to have a 
man of gentle virtue, of engaging manners, 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 191 

of perfect disinterestedness, and cultivated 
intellect, who might be able to overcome 
prejudices, to secure affection, and to win 
consideration and esteem. After the fullest 
and most conscientious deliberation, it seemed 
to M. de Matignon, that the man he wanted 
was M. de Cheverus, whose rare merit, and 
delightful character he had appreciated when 
at the Sorbonne. He wrote to him therefore 
in 1795 ; depicted all the misfortunes of this 
neglected mission, pointed out to him a new 
church to be created, told him of Catholics 
spread over an immense surface without spi- 
ritual succor, and exposed to the danger of 
losing their faith ; of savage tribes, to whom 
the light of the gospel might be carried — in 
short, mentioned every species of apostolical 
labor to be performed. How worthy of his 
zeal was not this boundless field ! and in 
what quarter of the globe could his services 
be more useful to the Church ! 

" On the 3d of October, 1796, he arrived 
safely at Boston, where he was received by 
M. de Matignon as an angel sent from heaven 
to his aid. The good Abbe immediately in- 
formed Bishop Carroll of the happy event, 
asking him, at the same time, for the powers 



192 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OP THE 

requisite for the new missionary, whose tes- 
timonials he sent him. One from the Bishop 
of Dol, the other from the Bishop of Mans, 
both equally strong in their attestations to 
the purity of his faith, the fervor of his zeal, 
the warmth of his piety, his uncommon eru- 
dition, and perfect loyalty to his king and the 
head of the Church. Mr. Carroll was over- 
joyed at the intelligence of his arrival, and 
lost no time in investing him with all the 
powers requisite for his ministry." 

We cannot refrain from bringing before 
our readers the following strongly drawn 
pictures of the state of public feeling in New 
England towards the Church of which he was 
so worthy a servant, upon the arrival of the 
zealous missionary at Boston, and of the 
wonderful change produced in its favor, by 
his edifying virtues, conciliating manners, and 
liberal doctrines, all of which met the appro- 
bation, and was rendered more striking and 
efficacious by the example and practice of 
Bishop Carroll, and the clergy under his con- 
trol, throughout the United States. 

" The whole country," says M. Dubourg, 
"and Boston in particular, inhabited by En- 
glish colonies who had carried thither all the 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 193 

prejudices of their father-land, was filled, as 
we have already mentioned, with a multi- 
tude of sects, all disagreeing among them- 
selves in doctrine, but all united upon one 
single point, — hatred to the Catholic religion. 
The ministers of the various denominations 
never ceased declaiming against it, never 
ceased exhibiting it to the people as an im- 
pure mass of idolatries, and corrupt and des- 
picable individuals, as the new Babylon 
cursed in the Apocalypse, as the enemy of 
God and man. Its doctrines were depicted 
as a hideous collection of impiety, absurdity, 
and error, its priests as vile impostors, to be 
avoided like a pestilence. These denuncia- 
tions, so often repeated, had found credence, 
and taken root among all ranks of society, so 
that every where the name of Catholic was 
held in execration, a priest was regarded with 
horror, and the small number of the faithful 
who lived in that section, were objects of con- 
tempt or dislike, the more so that being al- 
most all exiled Irishmen, they were poor, 
and in consequence, destitute of considera- 
tion." 

Thus far the dark side of the picture, now 
for the bright ! 
17 



194 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

" The esteem with which M. de Cheverus 
was regarded naturally extended itself to his 
congregation. It was not to be supposed 
that the flock of such a pastor could be a> 
vile and despicable as they had been repre- 
sented. Prejudice daily decreased, and the 
instructions of M. de Cheverus, together with 
the docility of the Catholics in conforming to 
them, soon dissipated it altogether. He often 
repeated to his hearers the lesson of the 
apostle, that those who speak ill of us should 
be silenced by means of charity, good works 
and holy example ; that the characteristic of 
true piety is to be ever amiable, ever promot- 
ing the happiness of all around, to preserve 
towards all under every circumstance, a de- 
portment alike respectful, kind and delicate. 
After their duties to their neighbors, he ex- 
plained those enjoined upon them towards the 
state ; showed them the obligation of obeying 
the laws even ivhen they might be avoided with- 
out incurring their penalties ; of respecting 
the magistrates, of contributing to the good 
order, peace, and prosperity of the country, and 
should it be attacked, of employing force in its 
defence if required, and sacrificing fortune 
and life itself The Catholics listened to his 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 195 

instructions, and put them in practice. Of 
the religious societies of Boston, they became 
one of the most distinguished for their justice, 
their charity, their devotion to everything 
right ; and during the last war which the 
United States waged against England, none 
were more ardent in their patriotism, none 
more ready to carry aid wherever it was needed, 
and none more active in laboring, even with 
their hands, in the construction of whatever 
was requisite for the defence of the city ; so 
that the Protestants were compelled to ac- 
knowledge that they were excellent citizens no 
less than upright and honorable men. Divi- 
sion then ceased ; mutual relations of esteem 
and respect were established; and M. de 
Cheverus was thus enabled to give the fol- 
lowing reply to an interrogatory from the 
holy see in reference to the state of his mis- 
sion. " In this place where a few years ago 
the Catholic Church was the object of exe- 
cration, the name of a priest held in horror, 
we are now esteemed and loved, thought of 
kindly, and kindly treated." 

Who, after reading these eloquent passages 
and having candidly reflected on these patri- 
otic doctrines, and their practical application, 



196 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

particularly mentioned in those portions which 
we have italicised, will presume to call in 
question the principles and acts of American 
Catholics, when they have found such sin- 
cere and powerful exponents of the true and 
orthodox doctrines of their Church, as Arch- 
bishop Carroll, and Cardinal de Cheverus ? 

" So brilliant a reputation," continues our 
biographer, "could not remain enclosed with- 
in the precincts of Boston. Archbishop Car- 
roll, informed of his talents and virtues, 
thought that a priest of so much merit, ought 
not to continue in a secondary place, and that 
he was worthy of being invested with the 
charge of a more important church. In con- 
sequence he wrote to him, offering him the 
pastorship of the church of St. Mary, at Phi- 
ladelphia. Honorable as was the letter to 
M. de Cheverus, it yet gave him pain. He 
could not brook the idea of leaving his excel- 
lent friend, M. Matignon, who had called him 
from England, and whom he venerated as a 
father; and thanking Mr. Carroll for this 
testimonial of his confidence, he begged his 
permission to remain where he was. A re- 
quest which could not be refused." 

M. de Cheverus, having received letters 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 197 

from the king of France, and his friends and 
former parishioners, urging his return, M. 
Dubourg goes on to say — " Whilst he was 
thus agitated by conflicting feelings, he re- 
ceived on the 9th of April, 1803, a letter from 
Archbishop Carroll, who having learned how 
much danger there was of losing so efficient a 
coadjutor, wrote to beseech him not to aban- 
don his post. The prelate, a man of superior 
intellect, as well as virtue, worthy of the first 
ages of the Church, spread before him, with 
great force, all the reasons fitted to detain 
him, and finished by declaring his conviction 
that it was the will of God he should remain. 
M. de Cheverus whose humility prompted him 
to follow his own inclinations, no sooner read 
this letter than his uncertainty ceased. He 
thought he saw in it the command of Provi- 
dence, and that was sufficient for his faith. 
Instantaneously he offered up to God the sa- 
crifice of his country, and of all the gushing 
reflections which beckoned him towards it ; 
and on the Sunday of Easter, he announced 
to his flock that he would remain among 
them, sharing their good and their evil for- 
tune, and that they should fill the place of 
those relations whom he gave up for their 
17* 



198 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OP THE 

sakes. The joy of the Catholics, and indeed 
of all the inhabitants of Boston, at this in- 
telligence, may be more easily imagined than 
described. The fear of losing him had 
thrown them into consternation ; the assur- 
ance of keeping him filled them with happi- 
ness ; and to give him a striking proof of their 
gratitude, they made new and great exer- 
tions to finish the church which had so long 
before been commenced. The building in 
consequence proceeded with great rapidity ; 
and in four months M. de Cheverus had the 
satisfaction of seeing the edifice completed, 
and planting the cross upon its roof. He 
immediately communicated the fact to Bi- 
shop Carroll, through the medium of M. Ma- 
tignon, and invited him to consecrate the 
new temple on the 29th of September, the 
feast of Saint Michael. The bishop at once 
promised to perform the ceremony. The 
consecration of the first Catholic church in 
a city like Boston, was too interesting a cir- 
cumstance for the faith to permit him to 
hesitate ; and besides, the temptation to pass 
some days with two ecclesiastics like M. 
Matignon and M. de Cheverus, was irresisti- 
ble. He repaired, therefore, to Boston on 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 199 

the day appointed, and on the 29th Septem- 
ber, 1803, consecrated the edifice under the 
name of the Church of the Holy Cross. The 
ceremony was magnificent ; the temple was 
decorated with draperies and garlands ; the 
altar covered with rich ornaments, and sur- 
rounded by a clergy whose edifying deport- 
ment was still more attractive; the crowd 
was prodigious ; Protestants and Catholics, 
were alike eager to see the ceremony ; and 
M. de Cheverus put the crowning glory to 
the festival by the discourse which he pro- 
nounced. Inspired by the occasion, by the 
presence of the first pastor of the Church in 
America, by the numerous concourse of peo- 
ple, he spoke with a warmth, an energy of 
expression and sentiment which carried the 
audience away. The bishop could not re- 
strain his emotion, and when the preacher 
descended from the pulpit, he threw himself 
upon his neck, shedding tears of joy, and 
blessing God for having bestowed upon the 
Church so admirable a servant. On the 
evening of the ceremony, M. de Cheverus 
caused the exterior of the edifice to be illu- 
minated with all possible splendor, but with 
all that taste which he possessed in so ex- 



200 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

quisite a degree. The inhabitants without 
distinction, were all delighted with the 
beauty of the spectacle, congratulated M. de 
Cheverus, and seemed to share in his happi- 
ness. On beholding this scene, Bishop Car- 
roll could not help contrasting what he saw 
with the state of the Catholic religion in 
Boston at the period of M. de Cheverus' ar- 
rival, and wanted words to express his as- 
tonishment and delight. 

" Whilst M. de Cheverus was thus prose- 
cuting his holy labors, Providence was pre- 
paring for him the honors of the prelacy. 
Bishop Carroll, who was incessantly occupied 
with the means of accelerating the progress 
of the Catholic religion in the United States, 
had conceived the idea of erecting four new 
sees, one of which was to be at Boston, and 
embrace the whole of New England. For 
this bishopric lie had, in the first place, cast 
his eyes upon the venerable M. Matignon, 
whose age and learning, and former reputa- 
tion as a doctor and professor in the Sor- 
bonne, seemed to give him a preference over 
his more youthful assistant ; and he was on 
the point of sending his recommendations to 
Rome, when M. Matignon was informed of 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 201 

his intentions. Alarmed at the intelligence, 
the excellent abbe hastened to protest 
against the selection, gave a formal refusal, 
and proposed his friend M. de Cheverus in 
his place. The archbishop, who was well 
acquainted with the merits of the vicar of 
Boston, had no difficulty in allowing himself 
to be persuaded, and wrote to Rome accord- 
ingly. This letter was favorably received. 
On the 8th of April, 1808, Pius VII. sent his 
brief, erecting Baltimore into a metropolitan 
see, and creating four suffragan bishoprics, 
at Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and 
Bardstown in Kentucky. M. de Cheverus 
was named for the first; M. Concanney, a 
Dominican, for the second; M. Egan, a 
Franciscan, for the third ; and M. Flaget, a 
St. Sulpitian, for the last." 

A delay having occurred on the way, in 
consequence of the death of M. Concanney, 
who was bearer of the bulls, our biographer 
continues : " At length the bulls arrived, he 
(M. de Cheverus) repaired to the seminary 
at Baltimore, to make preparations for his 
consecration, and perform the customary re- 
treat. This he did, under the directions of 
M. Nagot, the superior of the establishment, 



202 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

an old man of angelic virtue, of the most ad- 
mirable simplicity of character, and the pro- 
foundest humility. On the 1st of November 
(All-Saints day), 1810, he was consecrated in 
the Cathedral of Baltimore, by Archbishop 
Carroll, assisted by his coadjutor, Mr. Neale, 
and Mr. Egan, Bishop of Philadelphia. On 
the 4th of the month, the feast of St. Charles, 
he preached in the same cathedral at the 
consecration of M. Flaget, Bishop of Bards- 
town, and pronounced upon the occasion a re- 
markable discourse, which his modesty alone 
prevented from appearing in print, its publi- 
cation having been universally demanded. 
In it he saluted Mr. Carroll as the Elias of 
the new law, the father of his clergy, the 
conductor of the car of Israel in the new 
world. Pater, mi, pater mi, currus Israel 
et auriga ejus;' and celebrated the praises 
of the society of St. Sulpitius, to which M. 
Flaget belonged, citing the various eulogiums 
that had been pronounced upon it, at different 
epochs in the assemblies of the clergy of 
France, and the phrase which fell from the 
lips of Fenelon on his bed of death, at that 
moment when a man flatters no more, - I know 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 203 

nothing more venerable and more apostoli- 
cal than the order of St. Sulpitius.' " 

It was on the occasion of the consecration 
of M. Cheverus, as bishop of Boston, that the 
Rev. Dr. V. Harold, one of the pastors of St. 
Mary's church in Philadelphia, paid the fol- 
lowing beautiful compliment to Archbishop 
Carroll. 

Cc Very Rev. Fathers : — You have not to re- 
sort to antiquity for an example of episcopal 
virtue. That bounteous God, whose mani- 
fold blessings overspread this land, whose 
boundless mercies claim our warmest grati- 
tude, still preserves for your advantage a 
living encouragement to such virtue, and a 
fair model for your imitation. You will seek 
both in your venerable and most reverend 
prelate ; you will find both in the father of 
the American Church, and under God, — the 
author of its prosperity. In him you will 
find that meekness which is the best fruit of 
the Holy Ghost, which for Christ's sake 
makes him the servant of all ; that richly 
polished character which none but great 
minds can receive, nothing but virtue can 
impart." 

Before separating, the five bishops availed 



204 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OP THE 

themselves of the occasion to establish cer- 
tain general regulations for the administra- 
tion of their churches, amongst which the 
following are most worthy of notice : — "1. 
Poor as they are in subjects, for the ecclesi- 
astical state, the bishops declare that they 
will with pleasure permit their diocesans 
to enter either the regular or secular orders 
to which they may deem themselves called. 
2. They forbid any translation of the holy 
scriptures to be inserted in prayer books ex- 
cept that of the Doway Bible. 3. They per- 
mit the prayers which precede and follow 
the essential form in the administration of 
the sacraments, to be said in the common 
tongue, with the exception of the mass, 
which must always be said entirely in 
Latin ; but they forbid the use of any ver- 
sion of those prayers save such as shall be 
approved by all the bishops of the province. 
4. They are unwilling that the vow of per- 
petual chastity should be allowed out of re- 
gular religious associations. 5. They exhort 
all pastors of souls to combat incessantly in 
both public and private, all attachment to 
diversions dangerous to morals, such as balls 
and plays, and forbid the perusal of books 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 205 

calculated to weaken faith or corrupt virtue, 
particularly romances. 6. They forbid all 
priests to admit to the sacraments those 
whom they know to belong to the society of 
freemasons, unless they have obtained from 
them a promise of ceasing to frequent the 
lodges, and of openly proclaiming that they 
are no longer members of the society." 

Having thus, by the judicious selection of 
able and pious men to fill the sees which, 
at his request and recommendation, the holy 
father had granted to the Catholic Church 
of the United States, secured its best inter- 
ests and prosperity, Archbishop Carroll de- 
voted himself with untiring zeal and energy 
to the discharge of his multifarious and heavy 
duties, which his advanced age now ren- 
dered doubly onerous, watching with zealous 
and paternal care over the progress of that 
religion of which he was truly the founder 
and apostle in the new world : and winning 
by his charity, talents and edifying virtues, 
the veneration and respect of all, without 
distinction of sect or opinion. 

The evening of his long and active life 
was rendered still more calm and consoling 
to him, and beautiful to his friends, by the 
18 



206 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

sweet conviction of the rapid increase and 
cheering prospects of the Church subject to 
his jurisdiction, and by the gratifying feeling 
that its then state of prosperity and promise 
was mainly owing, under God, to the unex- 
ceptionable and judicious administration of 
his high trust, and to his pious and liberal 
teaching and example. 

The time had now come round for the 
closing scene of his labors and usefulness. 
Though age had dealt leniently with him, 
and a temperate and virtuous life had se- 
cured for him a comparatively easy passage 
to the tomb, and carried him with robust 
health through fatigue and exposure, yet his 
cold hand was upon him, and the universal 
debt of nature was to be paid. Warned of 
his approaching end, the venerable prelate 
resigned himself with christian fortitude to 
the will of God, and confiding in the prom- 
ises of his Divine Redeemer, which he had 
endeavored to secure by the offering of a 
well-spent life, he passed gently to a better 
world, amid the tears and regrets of his 
relatives and friends, and of a large and 
admiring community, 'on Sunday, the 3d of 






MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 207 

December, 1815, in the eightieth year of his 
age. 

The following letter, from one of his rela- 
tives, written about a week before this mel- 
ancholy event, describes feelingly the edify- 
ing conduct of the suffering prelate through- 
out his trial. " My uncle,' 7 says the writer, 
"had a better night than his friends and 
doctors were apprehensive and afraid he 
would have, and he has been more composed 
and in less pain all day, than he was yester- 
day. These are all favorable symptoms, 
but the physicians do not think that they 
ought to shed a gleam of hope upon his re- 
covery. Delusive as they are, however, 
they are all infinitely consoling to the anx- 
ious and solicitous friends, which, it would 
seem, from being at his house one day, in- 
cluded the whole population of Baltimore, 
who are constantly calling to inquire about^ 
and to urge for permission to see him. His 
mind is as vigorous as ever it was, and 
whenever any person goes to his room, you 
would be pleased and astonished at his 
readiness in adapting his conversation and 
questions to the situation and circumstances 
of the person introduced. At times he is 



208 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

not only cheerful, but even gay, and he is 
never impatient or fretful. After receiving 
the last sacraments, which were adminis- 
tered in a very solemn manner, all the cler- 
gymen and young ecclesiastics of the town 
attending, he made a beautiful and pathetic 
address of ten or fifteen minutes to them, in 
a firm and audible voice, perfectly connected 
throughout and particularly appropriate to 
the occasion." 

The following interesting notice of his 
death and character is from the pen of Rob- 
ert Walsh, Esq., of Philadelphia. 

" On the 3d of December, 1815, he de- 
parted this life at Baltimore, in the eightieth 
year of his age. His life was almost at the 
last ebb, and his surrounding friends w 7 ere 
consulting about the manner of his inter- 
ment. It was understood that there was a 
book in his library which prescribed the 
proper ceremonial, and it was ascertained to 
be in the very chamber in which he then 
lay. A clergyman went as softly as possi- 
ble into the chamber in search of it. He 
did not find it immediately, and the Arch- 
bishop heard his footsteps in the room. 
Without a word having passed, he called to 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 209 

the clergyman, and told him that he knew 
what he was looking for; that he would find 
the book in such a position on a certain shelf; 
and there it was accordingly found. When 
we consider that the prelate was, at this 
moment, fully sensible of his nearness to 
the tomb, and that the knowledge that his 
friends were searching for the volume which 
explained the established mode of burial for 
archbishops, and other dignitaries of the 
Church, was above all things calculated to 
bring fully and strongly to his thoughts the 
melancholy and gloomy ideas attendant 
upon so solemn a service, and those ideas 
applicable to his own person, it is impossible 
to restrain our admiration, not only of the 
clearness and precision of his memory, at 
the age of eighty, but the sublime tranquillity 
of his spirit, which discoursed of mortality 
as if he had passed its limits, and regarded 
the concerns of this world as if he had 
already become an inhabitant of the other. 
" We may be permitted to pay ourselves 
an humble and direct tribute to the memory 
of him whose society we had so often the 
good fortune to enjoy. No being that it has 
been our lot to admire, ever inspired us with 
18* 



210 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OP THE 

so much reverence as Archbishop Carroll. 
The configuration of his head, his whole 
mien, bespoke the metropolite. We cannot 
easily forget the impression which he made, 
a few years before his death, upon a distin- 
guished literary foreigner, (of Scotland) who 
conversed with him for half an hour imme- 
diately after the celebration of the mass, in 
his parlor, and had seen the most imposing 
hierarchs in Great Britain. The visiter 
seemed, on leaving the apartment, to be 
strongly moved, and repeatedly exclaimed, 
'that indeed is a true archbishop!' The 
prelate could discourse with him on all the 
leading affairs and present vicissitudes of 
the world, with equal elegance and facility, 
in Latin, Italian and French ; with the most 
enlightened and liberal philosophy ; blending 
dignity with suavity, delicate pleasantry 
with the grave and comprehensive remark. 
Much of his correspondence was conducted 
in those languages ; he wrote them not less 
readily and tersely than his own, and had 
few equals in his critical knowledge and 
employment of the latter. He bore his su- 
perior faculties and acquirements, his well- 
improved opportunities of information and 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 211 

refinement, abroad and at home, his profes- 
sional rank and his daily honors, we will not 
say meekly, but so courteously, happily and 
unaffectedly, that while his general charac- 
ter restrained in others all propensity to in- 
decorum or presumption, his presence added 
to every one's complacency, and produced a 
universal sentiment of earnest kindness to- 
wards the truly amiable and truly exalted 
companion and instructor. He mingled often 
with gay society, relished the festivities of 
polished life, and the familiar intercourse of 
both clergy and laity of the Protestant de- 
nominations; and it was this expansion of 
his nature and the simplicity of his spirit 
and carriage, at his elevated station and the 
sanctity of his way, that drew to his funeral 
a greater concourse, comprising more real 
mourners, than had ever been witnessed in 
Baltimore, on a similar occasion, filled the 
streets and windows with sympathising spec- 
tators, and produced as vivid a sensation in 
the whole body of Catholics throughout the 
union, as if each congregation or individual 
had lost the dearest of immediate pastors or 
friends. 

" He was wholly free from guile, uniformly 



212 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 



frank, generous and placable ; he reprobated 
all intolerance, and when accused, in the 
newspapers, of having in a pastoral letter 
c excluded from the honorable appellation of 
christians all that were not within the pale 
of his Church/ he answered by the same 
channel, c if such a passage can be pointed 
out, he (the bishop) will be the first to con- 
demn it; since so far from embracing this 
opinion as an article of his faith, he holds the 
doctrine directly contrary to be that of his 
Church, which he and all other Catholics 
have constantly maintained in opposition to 
the tenets of some pretended Reformers.' 

" The archbishop's patriotism was as de- 
cided as his piety. He ranked and voted 
with the federal party; yet he entertained 
no predilection for Great Britain or her gov- 
ernment. He loved republicanism; and so 
far preferred his own country, that if ever he 
could be excited to impatience or irritated, 
nothing would have that effect more cer- 
tainly, than the expression of the slightest 
preference, by any American friend, of for- 
eign institutions or measures. He had joined 
with heart and judgment, in the revolution; 
he retained without abatement of confidence 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 213 

or favor, the cardinal principles and Ameri- 
can sympathies and hopes, upon which he 
then acted." 

The papers of the day were replete with 
expressions of profound sorrow, and eloquent 
with eulogy of the deceased prelate. His 
loss was indeed one that went to the heart 
of a large community. The influence of his 
examples, and the greenness of his memory 
survive, and the study of his life is pregnant 
with interest and instruction. His death 
was, as his life, edifying and consoling, for 
none of the many who crowded weeping 
round his couch, when the immortal spirit of 
the good and just minister of God winged its 
flight to the fruition of its hopes and aspira- 
tions, but envied so calm and pious a conclu- 
sion of a long and honorable career, and left 
the solemn scene chastened and improved. 

The following extracts from contempora- 
neous journals will afford some idea of the 
character of the archbishop, and of the pub- 
lic grief on this melancholy occasion. 

" The closing ceremonies with which the 
body of the late Archbishop Carroll was 
entombed on Tuesday, brought together a 
greater crowd than we have witnessed on a 



214 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

similar occasion. The great, and the rich, 
and the poor, and the lowly, assembled to 
pay the last tribute of respfect to the memory 
of this good and illustrious prelate. The 
chapel which has been so long cherished by 
his fostering care, was crowded at an early 
hour, and the multitude, who assembled 
without, seemed rather to indicate that some 
great public ceremony was to be performed, 
or some national calamity to be deplored. 

" The corpse of the venerable archbishop, 
which had laid in state since the preceding 
Sunday, was now enclosed in the coffin, sur- 
mounted by his mitre and pastoral crozier, 
and surrounded by those emblems which unite 
the fancy with the heart in solemn devotion. 
After the celebration of high mass, the pro- 
cession moved through Saratoga and Franklin 
streets to the chapel of the seminary, which 
was designated as the place of interment. 
We have never witnessed a funeral proces- 
sion where so many of eminent respectability 
and standing among us, followed the train of 
mourners. Distinctions of ranks, of wealth, 
of religious opinion, were laid aside in the 
great testimony of respect to the memory 
of the man. Besides the numerous crowd 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 215 

that filled the procession, the windows were 
thronged with spectators. The funeral ser- 
vice for the dead was performed at the 
chapel of the seminary, and the mind al- 
ready penetrated with regret and deep sor- 
row, felt the effect of those religious cere- 
monies, which performed in the same manner 
and chanted in the same language and tone 
of voice, through succeeding ages, bring to- 
gether the remotest periods of eighteen hun- 
dred years, and present to the mind some 
faint image of eternal duration. 

" The deep tones of the organ, and the 
solemn chants of the choristers, seemed to 
the excited feeling not to belong to this 
world, but to be the welcome of good spirits 
who had gone before, and now solemnly 
saluted him who descended through the 
tomb to the bar of eternal justice, to receive 
the reward apportioned to a good and faith- 
ful servant. 

" According to the particular disposition of 
every one, we heard the venerable archbishop 
praised and lamented. The extent of his 
knowledge and the enlargement of his mind, 
fastened upon the men of liberal science. 
The liberality of his character, and his chris- 



216 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

tian charity, endeared him to his Protestant 
brethren, with whom he dwelt in brotherly 
love. He was a patriot and loved his native 
land, nor should Americans forget that his 
exertions and benedictions as a man, and as 
a christian prelate, w^ere given to the cause 
and independence of his country. 

" His manners were mild, impressive and 
urbane. The various stores of knowledge 
came from his lips with uncommon classical 
grace and richness, which he gained from a 
perfect acquaintance with ancient languages 
and literature. His charities were only 
bounded by his means, and they fell around 
him like the dews of heaven, gentle and un- 
seen. To those who stood not in need of the 
comforts of life, he administered the consola- 
tion of his counsel; and the weight of his 
character and his reputation for erudition 
and profound good sense, gave an authority 
to his advice which the proudest scarcely 
dared to disregard. The veil of mourning 
which hid the tears of the afflicted, covered 
many a heart not of his own particular flock, 
which felt that it lost an inestimable friend. 

" The character of Archbishop Carroll 
seemed indeed to be filled up with wonder- 



2 ' 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 217 

ful care. He viewed the manners of differ- 
ent nations, saw the courts of kings and the 
meetings of philosophers, and added the lib- 
erality of a true philosopher and the accom- 
plishments of a gentleman, to the apostolic 
dignity of his calling. Temptation drew 
forth the purity of his virtue, and like 
Shadrach, he walked erect in the flames. 
He early marked the rise of the baneful 
meteor of French philosophy. But he ga- 
thered his spiritual children under his wings, 
and protected them in security. He was 
permitted to witness a great revival of 
religion, and in the abundant prosperity of 
his particular church, to reap the harvest of 
his toil, and labor of his life. 

" When he was called to receive the re- 
ward of his many virtues, the excellence of 
his character shone forth with fresher lustre, 
as he gradually sunk, like the sun, in mel- 
lowed splendor. So death, as if fearfully, 
attacked him with slow and cautious ap- 
proaches. The paralysis, and consequent 
mortification of the lower extremities, was 
complete before his icy touch ventured to 
chill the heart, and even until the last mo- 
ment the noble faculties of the mind retained 
19 



218 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

their pristine vigor. He enquired if a con- 
veyance was prepared to take away his sis- 
ter, and weeping connexions : told them the 
scene was about to close, and requested 
them to take rest and nourishment. He 
gave them his benediction, turned his head 
aside, and expired. His countenance re- 
tained in death the benignant expression of 
life. His piety grew warmer as life closed, 
and the fire of religious hope, was elevated 
almost to enthusiasm. c Sir,' he said to an 
eminent Protestant divine, who observed 
that his hopes were now fixed on another 
w^orld, — l sir, my hopes have always been 
fixed on the cross of Christ.' 

" Yet humility tempered his confidence, 
and while a numerous circle surrounding his 
bed of death, were transported with venera- 
tion at the moral sublimity of his last mo- 
ments, and his joyous expectation of a 
speedy release, he called to his friend and 
associate to read to him the c Miserere me 
Deus,' — Have mercy on me, O Lord ! Re- 
versing the wish of Vespasian, he desired, 
were it practicable, to be placed on the floor, 
so that he might expire in the posture of the 
deepest humility, as a christian martyr, 



MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 219 

and an humble suppliant to an interceding 
Saviour. 

" How do the boasted glories of philoso- 
phers fade before the death of such a man ! 
Socrates died with a cheerless and unknown 
futurity before him. Cato's indignant son 
spurned the yoke of imperial Caesar, and 
Seneca opened his veins, and calmly dis- 
coursed of philosophy as life ebbed with the 
purple tide ; but it was not theirs to know 
the hope of a christian, that hope which 
springs from a life of virtue and a pious soul, 
and which changes the tomb into the tri- 
umphal arch, through which the pilgrim 
passes into joyful eternity. 5 ' 

Another Baltimore paper indulges in the 
following beautiful and glowing tribute to 
the memory of the deceased prelate. 

" His manners and deportment," says the 
writer, "in private life, were a model of 
clerical character, dignified, yet simple; pious, 
but not austere. This secured him the af- 
fectionate attachment of his friends and the 
respect of all. 

11 In him religion assumed its most attrac- 
tive and amiable form, and his character 
conciliated for the body over which he pre- 



220 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

sided, respect and consideration, from the 
liberal, the enlightened of all ranks and de- 
nominations; for they saw that his life ac- 
corded with the benign doctrines of that 
religion which he professed. 

"The members of his own church, to 
whom he was in truth a guide and a father, 
who daily witnessed the kindness, the bene- 
ficence, and the tenderness of his heart, who 
in the purity of his doctrines and precepts, 
saw the purity of his own unsullied charac- 
ter, who saw him on his death-bed, with the 
meekness, the patience and the cheerfulness 
of a saint and martyr, view the sure and 
rapid approaches of his own dissolution, con- 
cerned not for himself, but anxious only for 
the welfare of those whom he was so soon 
to leave, will long remember him with the 
most profound heart-felt grief, gratitude and 
veneration. 

"He taught us how to live, and ah! too high 
The price of knowledge, taught us how to die." 

" Death, the terrors of which he had so 
often dispelled from the minds of others, 
had no powers to disturb his serene and 
tranquil soul — but long will his bereaved 






MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL. 221 

and disconsolate flock mourn the loss of him 
who was the succor and support of the 
wretched, who, when this world could afford 
them nothing on which to lean, turned to 
him for consolation as their spiritual father. 

" Long will the poor mourn for one who 
always relieved their wants to the utmost 
extent of his means, and even extended his 
care of them beyond the bound of his own 
existence. They will long weep for him 
who watched and wept, who prayed and 
felt for all 

" Those helpless orphan children, to whom 
he was indeed a father, and who flocked 
around him dying, to receive his last advice 
and blessing, may well weep, for their loss is 
irreparable. 

" His Church may well mourn, for her loss 
is incalculable." 



19* 



APPENDIX. 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR IN COMPANY WITH THE HON. MR. (AFTER- 
WARDS LORD) STOURTON. BY THE REV. J. CARROLL. 

The province of Alsace, one of the most fer- 
tile in Europe, after having been for many 
years in the possession of the house of Aus- 
tria, was ceded to France by the treaty of 
Munster, in the year 1648. As the govern- 
ment exercised by the Austrian family was 
subject to several restrictions, on account of 
the privileges claimed by the inhabitants, so 
the cession of it to France met with many 
difficulties. Besides Strasbourg, which was 
not comprehended in the treaty of cession, 
there were ten imperial towns governed by 
their own magistrates, and immediately sub- 
ject to the empire. One of these was Col- 
mar. These towns, as well as the dukes of 
Wurtemberg, Deux Ponts, and others, who 
had fiefs or possessions in Alsace, immedi- 
ately relevant of the empire, insisted that 
the house of Austria could not transfer the 



224 APPENDIX. 

sovereignty of the whole province, since it 
had itself never been possessed of it. They 
demanded that the imperial towns, their dis- 
tricts, and the above mentioned fiefs should 
retain their privileges and relevancy of the 
empire. The matter was left in a kind of 
ambiguity at the conclusion of the peace ; 
but France being put in possession of the 
province, would not allow any favor to these 
pretensions, nor admit there was any ambi- 
guity in the treaty; and Strasbourg being 
surrendered to France in 1681, the full and 
entire sovereignty was confirmed to that 
crown by the treaty of Reswick. It still 
however retains some of its former usages. 
The Roman law is followed in the courts of 
judicature; even where it is contrary to the 
ordinances of the kings of France, if you ex- 
cept some few which existed since the ces- 
sion of Alsace and registered in the provin- 
cial court of judicature. 

The court held at Colmar is called, le 
Conseil Souverain d : Alsace, and differs from 
the different parliaments of the kingdom. It 
consists of a first and second president, and 
of twenty-four judges, called conseillers. 
They are divided into two chambers, each 



APPENDIX. 225 

presided by a president. There are besides 
an attorney and two advocates general. 
The attorney general (procureur general) 
has very great authority in the province. 
He has an inspection over every part, is 
charged to prosecute all breaches of the 
peace, to inform of all abuses, to receive and 
lay before the conseil all complaints, to dis- 
charge the king's trust of guardianship of 
orphans, &c. 

The counsellors sit in the first and second 
chambers, annually, by rotation ; but the first 
president and dean of the council always re- 
main, the former in the first chamber and the 
latter in the other. They sit every day, 
Sundays and holidays excepted. Three 
days in the week, each chamber gives audi- 
ence, that is, hears and determines causes by 
the pleadings of the lawyers, whilst the 
other judges those matters which are discus- 
sed in writing. In all causes, which any 
wise affect the king, or where minors, corpo- 
rations, &c. are concerned, after hearing the 
arguments of the respective lawyers, one of 
the advocates general resumes what has 
been urged on each side, delivers and en- 
forces his opinion on the matter, and pro- 



226 APPENDIX. 

poses it to be adopted by the court* When 
the advocate general is a man of much ex- 
perience or considerable abilities, his opinion 
has great weight, but at present neither of 
them, any more than the attorney general, 
enjoys much reputation for knowledge. 

This may appear extraordinary to an 
Englishman, since with us it is a certain 
mark of great eminence in the law to be 
raised to the rank of king's council. But 
this surprise will vanish, when it is consid- 
ered that the charges of judicature in France 
are considered saleable ; and that they are 
transmitted as an inheritance from father to 
son, dependently on some trifling duty on 
their passing from one to another. The 
money delivered for a charge is not so pro- 
perly alienated, as placed out at interest ; 
originally the king paid four or five per cent, 
but at present the charges are very irregu- 
lar. When the charges were fixed, those of 
judge or counsellor were rated at ten or 
twelve thousand livres, and the king received 
no more for them. But at present they are 
valued at twenty-four thousand livres, and 
sometimes sold for more. They are con- 
sidered as a patrimonial fund, may be mort- 



APPENDIX. 227 

gaged, or given in fortune to a daughter. It 
is said that many of those in Alsace are 
loaned to the Jews, who swarm throughout 
the province. 

An inconvenience arising from the sale of 
offices is, that the judges in general are not 
the most proper to determine matters of law 
and equity. A young man, who has fortune 
enough, need but spend a few months at the 
university of Strasbourg, take his degree of 
licentiate, which is granted without diffi- 
culty, present himself at the bar of Colmar, 
to be admitted advocate, and he is instantly 
qualified to be a counsellor. The venality 
introduced by Louis XII., Francis I., and the 
succeeding kings of France, occasioned this 
great abuse, which calls aloud for redress. 

When the king sends to the council any 
new ordinance to be published, or when any 
regulation of police concerning the province 
is to be made, the two chambers are assem- 
bled together, and every thing is determined 
by the majority of votes. 

Strasbourg retained many privileges, when 
it submitted to France. The magistracy 
can determine finally and without appeal, 
all suits not exceeding a certain value, and 



228 APPENDIX. 

is, I am told, the only town under the crown 
of France, where the intervention of the 
royal judges is not necessary to condemn a 
criminal to death. The free exercise of reli- 
gion is allowed to Lutherans in the greatest 
part of the Province. The town magistracy 
and all municipal employments of Strasbourg, 
Colmar, &c, are divided between them and 
the Catholics. But the latter only are ad- 
mitted to exercise any function whatever in 
the supreme council, and in general all the 
king's officers are of the reigning religion. 
The number of Lutherans has encreased con- 
siderably since their subjection to France, 
though they enjoyed great credit during the 
administration of the Duke of Choisel, and 
in contested points had generally more influ- 
ence than the Catholics. They are said to 
be secretly very averse to the French gov- 
ernment, and firmly attached to the house of 
Austria, or rather to the empire. If they do 
not reconcile themselves with the Church, it 
does not proceed from any great zeal for 
their own tenets ; they are mostly latitudina- 
rians in religion, but bred up in a strong 
aversion to Catholicity. 

The inhabitants are industrious and gene- 



APPENDIX. 229 

rally live comfortably. Property is very 
much diffused, children inheriting of their 
parents in equal shares. There is scarce a 
fortune in Alsace exceeding thirty thousand 
livres per annum, except the great estates 
possessed by the Bishop of Strasbourg, and 
some sovereign princes of Germany, who 
have fiefs in this province. Most of the coun- 
sellors of Colmar are poor, and he is thought 
to be in good circumstances, who has four or 
five thousand livres per annum, which few 
of them are possessed of. Notwithstand- 
ing this, and the low birth of many amongst 
them, they affect to be haughty and super- 
cilious. The general character of the people 
is want of courtesy and affability. The men 
and women of fashion dress after the French 
mode; but the women of inferior rank, and 
most of the Lutherans plait their hair in 
ringlets upon their heads. 

The entire province is amazingly fertile, 
and one of the most agreeable a spectator 
can behold. It is separated in its whole 
length from Lorraine by a chain of moun- 
tains, which are covered with firs. A beau- 
tiful plain about five leagues broad extends 
quite to the Rhine. The plain is watered 
20 



230 APPENDIX. 

by several rivers springing from the moun- 
tains; it produces amazing crops of all kinds 
of grain, and the sides of the mountains, as 
well as some parts of the plain, are covered 
with vineyards, which yield an agreeable 
table wine. The taste of it resembles that 
of Moselle. Grain and wine are the chief 
articles of exportation, great quantities of 
both being sent into Switzerland. We were 
in Colmar after two different crops, and three 
or four very bad vintages, and too large a 
quantity of corn had been exported. The 
price of wheat at a medium was twenty-six 
livres the sack, weighing one hundred and 
seventy pounds, and of the middle sort of 
wine, six sous the bottle. The roads through 
the wiiole province are excellent, and kept 
in perfect repair. The inspection over them 
belongs to the intendant, who resides at 
Strasbourg, and has great authority. He is 
properly the person of confidence of the 
court ; the detail and levy of taxes is com- 
mitted to his care ; the municipal officers of 
the towns must be approved, and in effect, 
appointed by him; all secret orders of the 
court are transmitted to him, and he is en- 
trusted with their execution. The method 



APPENDIX. 231 

of keeping the roads in repair is this : Each 
town and village, through which they pass, 
has a certain number of roads allotted to its 
care, and the inhabitants choose the season 
in which they are least employed in agricul- 
ture to make the necessary reparations. 
This dispenses them from the necessity of 
turnpikes. 

There are no manufactures of conse- 
quence in the province ; great quantities of 
cloth are imported from Abbeville, Sedan 
and England. These latter are landed at 
Ostend, and sent from thence to Brussels, 
whence they are transported in wagons 
through the Ardennes and Lorraine. I was 
told likewise that considerable imports of 
other English manufactures were made clan- 
destinely from Geneva, Switzerland, and the 
other side of the Rhine, as well into this as 
the neighboring provinces of Lorraine and 
Franche Comte. Perhaps our political wri- 
ters do not know this, when they make the 
balance of our trade with France so much 
against us. The country is full of large and 
well peopled villages, besides the many pop- 
ulous towns ; Strasbourg is the chief. The 
noble Cathedral and its remarkable high 



232 APPENDIX. 

tower is famous through Europe. The bishop 
has a grand palace, built by Cardinal Rohan, 
the first of that family who enjoyed this see. 
Nothing pleased me more than the admirable 
gilding of the stucco work of the ceilings. 
The bishop has another still more magnifi- 
cent palace, though not entirely built, at 
Taverne, about nine leagues from Strasbourg. 
Adjoining to it are large gardens finely 
planted, and in front of the palace a canal 
two leagues long, terminated by a well built 
village. It has a fine effect to the eye though 
it would in my opinion be more agreeable, 
if it were serpentine. On both sides of the 
canal is a fine w r alk shaded with trees. 

The military government of the province 
is under a marshal of France, who resides at 
Strasbourg, where there is generally a gar- 
rison of ten thousand men. There are many 
strong places in the province ; in Upper Al- 
sace, Befort, Huninghen and New Brisach, 
on the Rhine ; Schlestat near the centre of 
the province, Strasbourg, Landan and Fort 
Louis in Lower Alsace. 

The increase of population is so great, that 
I heard from the rector of a parish, that 
there had been an augmentation of forty fa- 



APPENDIX. 233 

milies in his village within twenty-five years. 
I do not suppose this enormous increase to 
be general throughout the province, and in 
the above mentioned village it must have 
been owing to some accidental circumstance 
which drew strangers thither. But I found 
in general, on the best information I could 
obtain, that in time of peace, the inhabitants 
multiply very fast. When France is at war, 
the province furnishes an immense number 
of recruits for the army. It is supposed, 
that during the last war they amounted to 
twenty thousand men. 

I find however, in the remonstrances pre- 
sented to the king in the year 1764, by the 
supreme council of Colmar, heavy complaints 
of the visible depopulation of the country, 
and of the bad state of agriculture, which 
they attribute to enormous taxes, and still 
more to the abuse committed in levying them. 
I am inclined to believe there is great exag- 
geration in these remonstrances ; the coun- 
sellor, who was charged to draw them up, is 
said to have had some particular resentments 
to gratify ; and certainly the flourishing state 
of agriculture in 1770 and 1771, is a proof 
that it was far from the deplorable condition 
20* 



234 APPENDIX. 

in which it was represented in 1764. Much 
is left to the arbitrary determination of a 
commissary appointed to fix the quotas of the 
taxable. For instance, the tax of the ving- 
tieme, or twentieth penny, is raised in such a 
manner, that it really becomes a fifth or 
sixth. Innumerable other abuses in raising 
the king's revenues, are placed in a strong 
light in the remonstrances, and certainly de- 
serve redress, the more so, as they tend to 
the king's manifest prejudice. For instance, 
during the years 1760, 1761, 1762 and 1763, 
(I could find no materials of a more ancient 
date) the king's exchequer did not receive 
two thirds of the revenue raised in Alsace. 

The different impositions under the names 
of subvention, epis du Rhin, capitation, sup- 
plement aux gages, abonnemtnt de Courtiers, 
&c, solde de milice, pepiniere, milices, gardes 
cotes: 1st, 2d and troisieme vingtieme, four- 
rages, fraix communs, comptes de communau- 
tes et villes, dons gratuits, impots sur les cuirs, 
les tabacs, &c, yielded in 1764, liv. 3, 899, 
540 a 12 a 8|, and the king's coffers received no 
more than 2,177,15 a 17 a 0. 

I cannot be so particular with regard to 
the province of Lorraine, though we saw a 



APPENDIX. 235 

great part of it. It is much larger than Al- 
sace, I believe nearly double, but not so gen- 
erally fertile. Great part of it is not fit to 
bear wheat, but produces oats in plenty. 
This province for a long series of years en- 
joyed its own princes, separate in govern- 
ment, and mostly in politics and inclination, 
from France. In the wars, which for so 
many years raged between that kingdom 
and the house of Austria, Lorraine almost 
always took part with the latter, and when 
it did not openly, was still viewed with a 
jealous eye by the former. After the ces- 
sion of Alsace to Louis XIV., the situation 
of Lorraine became more critical, as its 
communication with the empire was ren- 
dered extremely difficult. From that time, 
it was apparent that sooner or later it 
would fall under the dominion of France. 
This event took place in the year 1737. 
Francis, Duke of Lorraine, having married 
Mary Teresa, daughter of the Emperor 
Charles, and heiress to the Austrian domin- 
ions, found himself under the necessity of 
making over his paternal dutchy to France : 
he received as an indemnification the grand 
dutchy of Tuscany in Italy, which is now 



236 APPENDIX. 

possessed by his second son, Archduke 
Leopold. 

This cession was a terrible heart break- 
ing to the Lorrainers. They had enjoyed a 
long series of benevolent princes, and espe- 
cially Leopold, the immediate predecessor of 
Francis, had been rather the father than a 
sovereign of his subjects. Indeed, the pas- 
sage from the dominion of their national 
princes to that of France, was softened by 
their first becoming subject to Stanislaus, 
king of Poland. For it was stipulated in 
the peace of 1737, that Lorraine should be 
ceded to this prince during his life, and af- 
terwards devolve to France. Stanislaus 
undoubtedly had so many benevolent quali- 
ties, so much zeal for the interest and hap- 
piness of his subjects, that he would have 
made thern entirely easy under his govern- 
ment, if he could have removed the prospect 
of their future devolution to France, or if 
any compensation could be made to men of 
liberal understandings, for transferring them 
without their consent or concurrence, like 
so many slaves, from dominion to dominion. 
He beautified Nancy, their capital, making 
it one of the finest towns in Europe ; he in- 



APPENDIX. 237 

stituted noble foundations for the relief of 
his subjects, without any detriment to their 
industry ; he encouraged all the fine arts ; 
he propagated by his example and authority, 
a true spirit of religion, which he knew to 
be the best foundation of political as well as 
future happiness. He maintained at the 
same time a splendid court; and what is 
most remarkable, performed so many great 
things with a revenue, which would hardly 
suffice for the hunting parties of many sove- 
reign princes. As far as he was above 
meanness, (no prince ever carried into his 
expenses nobler or more extensive views of 
public good,) with so strict an economy did 
he administer his little revenues ; and he 
ought in every age to be held out to princes, 
as the Man of Ross is by our great poet, to 
private fortune, for an example of what 
great things may be done by small sums, by 
a prudent and an active zeal. 

This amiable and beneficent prince would 
have done still more for the prosperity of his 
subjects, had he been full master of his own 
actions. But a few years after the cession 
made to him of Lorraine, he was constrained 
through his dependence on France, to the 



238 APPENDIX. 

levying and imposing of taxes, and consented 
to receive a determined amount ; I have not 
now by me some memorials I had on the 
subject, and do not remember the precise 
sum; but the consequence of this transac- 
tion was that Lorraine became taxed much 
heavier than it had ever been under its own 
princes, which circumstance contributed to 
render their memory dearer. If we may 
credit those who remember the former gov- 
ernment, the difference between the present 
and past way of life of the farmer and la- 
borer, is enormous ; his clothing, his food, 
every necessary of life, is infinitely worse 
than heretofore. But these complaints are 
so much the style of every country, and par- 
ticularly of elderly people, that I cannot 
tell what credit they deserve. In some re- 
spects, I cannot help thinking the circum- 
stances of this country greatly bettered by 
its becoming subject to France. As long as 
it was governed by its own princes, they 
generally took part with the Austrians, as 
was intimated before. By this means, Lor- 
raine was almost always exposed to the in- 
cursions of the French armies, and their 
enormous contributions. It was surrounded 



APPENDIX. 239 

by provinces subject to other princes, and 
thus its imports and exports were liable to 
impositions which necessarily prevented all 
growth or extension of trade. The natural 
productions of the country, particularly the 
wine-growling in the dutchy of Bar, must 
necessarily have been a very uncertain reve- 
nue, since the vent of it abroad w r as so pre- 
carious, and dependent on the good pleasure 
of the neighboring states. Whereas, at pre- 
sent, Lorraine having become a French pro- 
vince, is under no other restraint than the 
rest of the kingdom. The produce of its 
vines and fields enjoys a free circulation : 
the ingenuity and industry of its inhabitants 
find an easy vent for their commodities ; and 
the strong frontiers, with which France is 
on every side secured against hostile inva- 
sions, leave the Lorrainer no other rapine to 
fear, than that of the merciless publican. 

Justice is administered in this province, as 
in the others of France, by a sovereign 
court, consisting of a first and another or 
more presidents, and a number of judges 
called conseillers. The court or parliament 
of Lorraine is different, however, in its con- 
stitution from the rest in this respect, that 



240 APPENDIX. 

the places are not saleable, but gratuitously 
bestowed by the governor, as was practised 
under the ancient dukes of Lorraine. And 
it may not be improper to inform the reader, 
of a great amelioration effected in the whole 
kingdom of France since the above observa- 
tions were made, namely, the abolition of ve- 
nality in the offices of judicature. Private 
animosities between the Dukes of Arguillon 
and Choiseul, gave occasion to this salutary 
operation ; the latter of these noblemen, to 
oppress his competitor, drew on him the 
whole weight of parliamentary persecution, 
and was not very solicitous of its insulting 
the royal authority, provided the Duke of 
Arguillon was made to suffer. But he mis- 
carried in his attempt. The king's patience 
was at length overcome. Choiseul was dis- 
graced and Monsieur de Maupeon, chancel- 
lor of France, had the courage to plan, pro- 
pose, and with the king's entire concurrence, 
to suppress all the parliaments of France, 
and re-establish them, but on a different foot- 
ing. The sale of places was abolished. 
When a vacation happens, the parliament 
is to propose three subjects, who are re- 
commended to be taken from amongst ex- 



APPENDIX. 241 

perienced barristers, and the king is to ap- 
point one of them. The parliament of Metz 
having been suppressed with the others, it 
was not replaced by a new creation, but the 
jurisdiction of the ancient one was united to 
that of Lorraine, by which means the parlia- 
ment of Nancy acquired a large addition of 
business and consequently of influence. 

I cannot leave Lorraine without recording 
some particular institutions of the benevolent 
Stanislaus. For the encouragement of fine 
arts, he erected an academy, to which were 
aggregated men of the best taste in the dif- 
ferent branches of literature and the sciences. 
He founded annual premiums to be bestowed 
on those who excelled in sculpture, painting, 
architecture, &c, which besides the certainty 
of being employed and well paid, enkindled 
emulation amongst his subjects, and greatly 
contributed to the perfection of the noble 
buildings and public monuments which adorn 
Nancy, viz : the town house, the governor's 
palace, the brazen statue of Louis XV., the 
public fountains, the town gates, &c. He 
provided the academy with noble apart- 
ments and an excellent library in the town 
house. His attention was given to the small- 
21 



242 APPENDIX. 

est as well as the greatest things, and many 
of the numerous buildings which surround 
the square of Louis XV., particularly the 
iron work of the balconies, are finished with 
a taste and perfection, which the encourage- 
ment and understanding of a great prince is 
used to diffuse throughout all his undertak- 
ings. 

The mission, as it is called, was another 
admirable institution of Stanislaus, calcula- 
ted for the instruction, chiefly, of the coun- 
try people, the preservation of manners, and 
consequently of industry amongst them, and 
for the relief of helpless indigence. With 
this view, he erected a noble house in one of 
the suburbs, and endowed it with sufficient 
revenues for the maintenance of a certain 
number of Jesuits, who were to be employed 
during the greatest part of the year, and 
particularly in the winter months, as being 
most convenient for the country people, in 
instructing them and enforcing the obliga- 
tion and practice of the great christian du- 
ties. It was appointed that they should di- 
vide the province of Lorraine amongst them, 
going two and two together, and that no 
part might be left uninstructed, half the 



APPENDIX. 243 

missioners were German , half French, each 
allotting to themselves, those districts re- 
spectively in which French or German was 
the ordinary language. It is incredible what 
advantages accrued from this institution; 
w T hat abuses, arising greatly from ignorance, 
extirpated ; what good practices introduced, 
and even what political improvement arose 
from the amendment and preservation of 
manners. The royal founder had this estab- 
lishment so much at heart, that he forgot 
nothing to insure its success. That the mis- 
sioners might be no grievance to the parish 
priests or others, during their excursions, he 
provided abundantly for the expenses of their 
journeys and maintenance. Wherever they 
went they were attended (and this, likewise, 
w r as owing to the provident care and princely 
foundation of Stanislaus) by a physician and 
apothecary with drugs to be administered 
gratis amongst the poor people, whom they 
should find in want of such assistance ; and 
moreover a certain sum was allowed to the 
missioners to be dispensed in alms in each 
mission. It may be truly said of this excel- 
lent prince, that his mind enjoyed that rare 
quality of forming great and mature plans 



244 APPENDIX. 

without losing sight of the minute details in 
carrying them into execution. He used 
every precaution which human prudence 
could direct, to perpetuate to future ages this 
monument of his love for his subjects. But 
he was scarce in the grave, when the court 
of Versailles ordered the missioners to evac- 
uate their house, the revenues were applied 
to other uses, or at least remained under 
sequestration, and so noble a foundation was 
at once wholly overturned. 

Indeed, the fate, which immediately after 
Stanislaus' death attended many others of 
his establishments, is sufficient to convince 
princes, that the surest way to future remem- 
brance, is to deserve the love of their sub- 
jects. The Lorrainers recall to mind their 
late sovereign with hearts full of gratitude 
and even tenderness, though the Duke of 
Choiseul during his ministry ordered many 
monuments of Stanislaus' magnificence to 
be destroyed. He gave instructions to this 
purpose with so much precipitation, that one 
is apt to think he was actuated by virulence, 
if the deceased prince could have raised 
those sentiments in any breast. Count Stain- 
ville, the duke's brother, was charged with 



APPENDIX. 245 

the execution of these orders, and was not 
deficient in his trust Malgrange, a palace 
near Nancy, and its fine gardens, were en- 
tirely destroyed, and the public was the 
more offended at the latter, as the old king 
had established in them some very edifying 
and popular practices of religion. Two or 
three other country seats were ruined ; and 
what excited particular indignation, was, 
that many pictures painted by Stanislaus 
himself in his hours of relaxation, (for he 
was a stranger to none of the polite arts,) 
were allowed to be bought and carried off 
by a company of Jews. Though father-in- 
law to the king of France, and so munificent 
a benefactor of his subjects, no monument 
is erected to his memory. It cannot be 
doubted, but the province of Lorraine would 
gladly contribute to any public testimony of 
their gratitude, but the leading men who 
should set such a design in motion, knew the 
temper of the minister, and were too good 
courtiers to suggest a measure which they 
had reason to think would be interpreted as 
a condemnation of his proceedings. The 
omission of a mausoleum was the more to be 
censured, as the spot for erecting it seemed 
21* 



246 APPENDIX. 

to be particularly marked out. In the beau- 
tiful chapel of Bonsecours, just out of the 
gates of Nancy, Stanislaus had raised a 
noble monument to the memory of the queen 
his consort, and on the opposite side of the 
chapel a space was left, which was designed 
for the ashes and mausoleum of the kings. 
In that of the queen, the connoisseurs in 
statuary admire a noble medallion in white 
marble of charity. She is represented in an 
attitude of the greatest beneficence, accom- 
pained by three children, one of whom lies 
asleep by her side, appearing to have been 
just relieved by her milk : she is actually 
giving suck to another, and the third is cry- 
ing, that his turn is not yet come to get his 
nourishment. 

If on the one hand, the Count de Stain- 
ville carried into execution his brother's in- 
structions for destroying many of Stanislaus' 
works, it must be added, likewise, that with 
the concurrence of the same person he erect- 
ed several others for the embellishment of 
Nancy. The barracks for the soldiery de- 
serve particular mention. They form an im- 
mense building of a noble, though unadorned 
style of architecture. The conveniences for 



APPENDIX. 247 

health, cleanliness and all other purposes, 
are admirable. The foundations of another 
grand edifice, designed for the university, 
were just laid, when I was in Lorraine. 
The count undertook to fill up the town 
ditches, and lay them out into grand walks, 
Nancy for the future not being to be kept 
as a town of war. The prodigious depth 
and breadth of the ditches, renders this un- 
dertaking truly immense. It was not car- 
ried on during my abode there with the 
same spirit it was begun, and probably the 
decline of Count Stainville's credit, by the 
disgrace of his brother, may put it wholly 
at an end. 

From Lorraine and Alsace, we proceeded 
across the Rhine into the empire. We 
passed over this river, by the wooden bridge, 
about three miles distant from Strasbourg. 
The bridge was formerly defended on the 
side of the empire by Fort Kehl, which is 
now quite gone to ruin. France has an easy 
entrance into Germany, whenever she wishes 
it. The first state one comes into on this 
side of the empire is the principality of 
Baden Baden. The capital town of his do- 
minions is Baden, but the residence of the 



248 



APPENDIX. 



Count is at Rastadt, where there is a noble 
palace, with large gardens laid out in the 
taste of the country. In my journey from 
Strasbourg to this place, I was taken ill 
w T ith a fever and ague, which put it out of 
my power to get the information of the 
country which I wished. I observed that 
part of it which lies towards the Rhine, to 
be chiefly fit for pasturage and Indian corn ; 
the other side produces a good deal of wheat. 
The wine growing here, called vin du mare- 
pusat, is more esteemed than that of Alsace. 
From Rastadt we proceeded to Carlsruhe, 
the residence of the Prince of Baden Dour- 
lach. The States of this prince were for- 
merly united with those of Baden Baden; 
under one sovereign, who was called prince 
of Baden. But one of the branches of the 
family becoming Protestant, it was supported 
by that interest during the long thirty years' 
war of the empire in the last century ; and 
it was settled in the treaty of Westphalia, 
that the principality should be so divided, 
that Baden Baden remain to the Catholic, 
and Baden Dourlach to the Protestant 
branch, with a provision, that if either be- 
came extinct, the survivor should inherit the 



APPENDIX. 249 

other's dominions. This event took place 
about two months after my passage through 
these states, the prince of Baden Baden 
dying without issue. He w r as son to the 
famous General Prince Lewis, of Baden. 

My illness continuing upon me, I found 
myself unable to see or learn the particular 
state of the Prince of Dourlach's govern- 
ment. I was the more concerned at it, as I 
was informed that he promoted with inde- 
fatigable application the welfare and happi- 
ness of his subjects, and that he very well 
deserved the accession to his fortune which 
he has now received. I heard in particular, 
that he provided every parish with an able 
schoolmaster, who taught the children read- 
ing, writing, arithmetic and surveying, with- 
out being any charge to the parents. All 
the children are obliged to frequent the 
school ; and whilst employing their hands in 
forming the alphabet, they are taught to 
read and write on such subjects as may ever 
occur to them. At certain times of the year, 
their performances are sent to the prince, 
who with unparalleled zeal and patience 
examines their improvement in writing or 
orthography, arithmetic, &c, and rewards 



250 APPENDIX. 

them accordingly; other schools are ap- 
pointed for instructing girls in things proper 
for their sex. The prince is repaid for this 
gratuitous education in the following manner : 
He keeps about one thousand four hundred sol- 
diers ; the young men from eighteen to twen- 
ty-four years must be content to serve, if 
they be judged proper, for a certain term of 
years, during which they are very well kept 
and regularly paid. I was just able to walk 
through the palace of Carlsruhe, which is the 
prince's chief residence. It is a new and 
very large building, and some apartments, 
especially that of the princess, are fitted up 
with great elegance. The gardens are very 
large, and some beginnings appear of good 
taste in laying them out. If the prince con- 
tinue to make this his principal sojourn, I 
doubt not but he will improve them much, as 
his abilities at present are so much greater. 
Following the course of the Rhine, we came 
next to Bruchsal, where the bishop and 
prince of Spire keeps his court. My com- 
panion went to see the palace, w T hile my ill- 
ness kept me abed : he told me it exceeded 
in the elegance of its taste and furniture 
those w r e had already met w T ith on our road, 



APPENDIX. 251 

The situation appeared very advantageous. 
I observed, in coming into the town, a salt 
refinery. I imagine there can be few manu- 
factures in these petty states. The consump- 
tion would never answer the expense. As 
they have a constant jealousy, one of the 
other, they naturally would lay heavy duties 
upon articles of importation from their neigh- 
bors. The people in general in this, as well 
as in both the principalities of Baden, have 
a heavy and awkward appearance, to which 
their dress contributes not a little. 

Leaving Bruchsal, we soon entered into 
the states of the Elector Palatine, and came 
through Heidelberg to Manheim. The elec- 
tor keeps a splendid court in this last town, 
which is seated at the confluence of the 
Rhine and the Neckar, and strongly fortified. 
The last elector having received some dis- 
content from the citizens of Heidelberg, re- 
moved his court from that city to Manheim, 
and entirely rebuilt this latter place in a very 
regular form. The streets are all straight, 
and most of them terminite at one extremity 
at the elector's palace. This is an immense 
and regular building, but not formed on any 
grand style of architecture, though there are 



252 APPENDIX. 

very rich apartments in it. The furniture 
of most is extremely costly and elegant. 
But the chief objects of curiosity are : 1. The 
gallery of pictures, which comprehends six 
rooms, though the two first contain nothing 
remarkable: 2. The collection of natural 
history, and antiquities : 3. A noble library 
of about forty thousand volumes : 4. A very 
magnificent theatre. 

The elector is a prince of remarkable 
good parts, and very well versed in litera- 
ture. He reads much, and speaks with flu- 
ency, besides his own language, Italian, 
French and English. Being learned him- 
self, he encourages literary merit in others : 
he has erected an academy of arts and sci- 
ences, which, however, is not likely to be of 
much advantage to the state. The mem- 
bers employed to form the plan and regula- 
tions proceeded upon narrow and selfish 
principles of interest and envy ; and under 
pretence of allowing entire liberty, and ex- 
cluding all partiality, introduced a system 
of by-laws, which may prove very detrimen- 
tal to revealed religion, as well as exclude 
from the academy the most learned men of 
the elector's dominions. 



APPENDIX. 253 

Those who were most distinguished for 
learning and merit, at the time of our pas- 
sage through the electorate, were Fathers 
Desbillons, Meyer, and another Jesuit, whose 
name I do not remember, professor of phi- 
losophy at the university of Heidelberg, and 
Messrs. Maillot and Tchoflin, librarians to 
the elector. Father Desbillons has applied 
himself particularly to the study of the Latin 
classics and the Latin tongue, and is per- 
haps the most versed in the knowledge of 
both of any man in Europe. His elegant 
Latin fables, formed on the model and style 
of Phoedrus, are a proof of extraordinary im- 
provement in his favorite study. It is a pity 
that the notes he has added, carry with them 
an air of pedantry. I heard he was em- 
ployed in a great work which was eagerly 
expected by the learned Germans, and was 
to be entitled the History of the Latin Lan- 
guage. Father Desbillons is a Frenchman, 
and after the dissolution of the Jesuits in 
France, was graciously received and pro- 
tected at Manheim by the elector. The par- 
ticular library which he has collected, of 
about eight thousand volumes is remarkable 
22 



254 APPENDIX. 

for the judicious choice and rareness of the 
books and editions. 

Father Meyer's studies are turned wholly 
on astronomy, of which he is a public elec- 
toral professor in the University of Heidel- 
berg. He is fellow of the Royal Society and 
several other academies. His mensuration 
of a degree of the meridian is esteemed 
among the learned. He was called to St. 
Petersburg, by the Empress of Russia, to ob- 
serve the last transit of Venus, and had good 
success. The elector has caused an observ- 
atory to be erected at one of his country 
palaces, and furnished it with the best instru- 
ments from England. It is here that Father 
Meyer makes his observations. 

Many schemes have been adopted for im- 
proving the natural richness of this state, by 
the establishment of different manufactures, 
and some have proved successful, particu- 
larly the China manufacture at Frankendahl. 
I saw several pieces of furniture executed 
there, which would do honor to Dresden. 
There are likewise some establishments for 
cloth, and linen manufactures. The advan- 
tages arising from these institutions, and 
chiefly a well regulated tax on the country, 



APPENDIX. 255 

which is very fertile, would yield a suffi- 
cient revenue to the elector, if like most 
other German princes, he did not keep a 
court much too splendid for the extent of his 
states, and, perhaps, a too great number of 
soldiers. Another large expense to the 
elector is the public theatre of his palace. 
He pays the whole charges of actors, music, 
decorations, wardrobe, &c. ; and those who 
are acquainted with theatrical entertain- 
ments, will easily form an idea of the im- 
mense sums, that are required to maintain 
them with splendor and dignity. Particu- 
lars pay nothing for going to see them. The 
consequence of the elector's magnificence is, 
that the subject is most enormously taxed. 
The palatinate very early embraced the 
reformed religion, which during a long 
course of years, greatly prevailed in number 
and power over the Catholics, as the sov- 
ereigns espoused the new doctrines. Some- 
times Lutheranism had the lead, sometimes 
Calvanism. But the eldest branch of the 
palatine line becoming extinct, the elec- 
torate devolved to the Duke of Newbourg, 
a Roman Catholic prince, and he brought 
an accession to his new state of the dutchy 



256 APPENDIX. 

of Berg. Since that time, the Catholics 
have become nearly equal, if not superior 
in number and interest, to either the Luther- 
ans or Calvinists, and their growth will 
probably continue to be still more con- 
siderable. The present elector has no suc- 
cessor, so that his states devolve to the Duke 
de Deux-Ponts, who likewise, will inherit the 
electorate of Bavaria, in default of issue from 
that and the palatine family. 

From Manheim, we continued following 
the course of the Rhine to Cologne, passing 
through the bishopric of Worms, the elec- 
torates of Mentz, Trevers, and Cologne. 

I shall say nothing of these countries, ex- 
cept that they produce great quantities of 
corn and wine. The government is abso- 
lute in these, as well as most other states in 
Germany. Mentz is the first electorate. It 
is likewise, as well as the two others, an 
archbishopric ; and the archbishop is legate 
of the holy see throughout Germany. His 
revenues, however, are not in proportion to 
his dignity. Those of Trevers are still con- 
siderable, and neither they, nor the elector 
of Cologne, would be able to maintain such 
splendid courts, if they did not hold other 



APPENDIX. 257 

bishoprics. Thus the present elector of 
Mentz, is likewise Bishop of Worms; that of 
Trevers, Bishop of Augsbourg, and that of 
Cologne, Bishop of Munster. 

Having returned back to Manheim, we 
proceeded from thence, through Swabia to 
Augsbourg. Though Swabia be in general 
a plentiful country, chiefly in corn, yet the 
generality of the inhabitants appear to be ex- 
tremely wretched. Whether it be owing to 
the weight of their taxes and abject depen- 
dence on their princes, or to the inland situa- 
tion of the country, which leaves them no 
opportunity of carrying on foreign trade, I 
will not pretend to determine. One obser- 
vation, however, the traveller through this 
country cannot avoid making, which is the 
strange contrast between the magnificence 
and politeness of the court of the Duke of 
Wurtemberg, which lies on the road, and 
the uncouthness of the other inhabitants. 
The dress and manners of the people, are the 
coarsest and most unseemly one can well 
imagine ; that of the women in particular 
does not seem to have received the smallest 
degree of refinement. Their houses are so 
contrived, that the ground floor serves for a 
22* 



258 APPENDIX. 

stable for their cattle ; a ladder leads up to 
that in which the family abides. The filth 
and stench arising from such a distribution 
are to be conceived ; had the people any 
ideas of cleanliness, it would be easy to keep 
their houses sweet and clean. I scarcely 
passed through a village in Swabia, where 
the streets were not plentifully watered by 
a constant stream. There is indeed to be 
observed in every country, a great difference 
between the gentry and lower class of peo- 
ple; but in none does this difference strike one 
so much, as in many parts of Germany ; and 
it is natural to imagine, that it arises there 
chiefly from the nature of the feudal govern- 
ment. The generality of the inhabitants are 
under so slavish a dependence, and they are 
so much accustomed to consider their lords 
as beings of a superior class, that it is very 
probable much the greatest part never con- 
ceive an idea of the original equality, or of 
the common rights of mankind. Their sen- 
timents in all likelihood might become more 
elevated, if the uniform equality of the sub- 
jects, one with another, did not stifle all the 
seeds of mutual emulation. In most other 
countries there is a regular gradation of 



APPENDIX. 259 

ranks from the prince down to the peasant ; 
but here there seem to be no intermediate 
condition ; and in the whole course of our 
travels through Swabia, I do not remember 
to have seen on the road, the house of one 
subject which bespoke a master elevaled 
above the condition of his fellow-subjects ; 
at least, not till we came into the neighbor- 
hood and jurisdiction of the imperial city of 
Augsbourg. 

That part of Swabia which belongs to 
the Duke of Wurtemberg is almost entirely 
Protestant, though the reigning duke him- 
self professes the Catholic religion. His 
brothers are likewise Protestants. As the 
duke himself has no children, and being 
separated from his wife, probably never 
will, his estates devolve to his next brother, 
Prince Eugenius. The duke is very pro- 
fuse, and has involved his finances in the ut- 
most confusion. This has been to him a 
source of much mortification, as his subjects 
are greatly discontented with his adminis- 
tration; for, notwithstanding his difficult cir- 
cumstances, he cannot refrain from extrava- 
gant expenses in building, hunting, keeping 



260 APPENDIX. 

great bands of musicians and all the innu- 
merable supports of an Italian theatre. 

Augsbourg is a large, well built town; 
it was formerly one of the first trading cities 
in the world, when Venice was mistress of 
the entire communications with the Levant 
and East Indies. The effects brought to 
Venice were conveyed, by land carriage, to 
Augsbourg, and from thence spread through- 
out the whole empire. Even at present, 
there are great remains of its ancient wealth 
and industry. Manufactures of goods, silver, 
steel, and the art of engraving, are still in 
much credit here. The government is a 
mixture of democracy and aristocracy. As 
the religion is partially Catholic and partly 
Evangelical, the magistracy are equally 
chosen out of the two professions. The town 
house is a remarkable building, furnished 
with some very fine paintings of the Dutch 
school. The great hall, appropriated to 
the most solemn occasions, such as the en- 
tertainment of the emperor, is one of the 
finest, both for its size and finishing, in 
Europe. There are other rooms designed 
for the assemblies of the magistracy, the dif- 
ferent trading companies, &c. My stay was 



APPENDIX. 261 

too short to inform myself of the state of 
letters. 

The road from Augsbourg to Munich, is in 
general disagreeable , the greatest part of it 
is through forests of firs, and the land is in- 
capable of improvement by cultivation. One 
proceeds but a little way from Augsbourg, 
before entering into the Duke of Bavaria's 
dominions. The harvest of 1771 was just 
gotten in, and the inhabitants were begin- 
ning to recover themselves from the dread- 
ful famine of the preceding year. Yet still, 
wretchedness and want were painted in 
every object ; provisions continued to bear a 
great price, much above the abilities of the 
poorer class of people. The roads were 
covered with miserable supplicants ; instead 
of gratifying curiosity with the sight and 
observation of new countries, it was im- 
possible not to have one's thoughts wholly 
occupied with the distress of so many fel- 
low-creatures. Even Munich itself, though 
the capital of the country, and usual resi- 
dence of a splendid court, appeared sad and 
gloomy, from the terrible circumstances of 
the times. The accidental scarcity was ag- 
gravated by the load of taxes laid on the 



262 APPENDIX. 

subjects. I found the elector beloved by his 
people, but his ministers most heartily de- 
tested, particularly the Count de Baumgar- 
ten, who had the chief direction of affairs, a 
man of inflexible rigidity, who having gained 
an ascendant over his sovereign during his 
youth, continued still to overrule his judg- 
ment. This was a real misfortune to the 
people, as the elector himself is a prince of 
great goodness, and more than ordinarily 
humane. The taxes, though weighty of 
themselves, became still more grievous by 
the manner in which they w 7 ere levied. All 
the duties of exportation and importation 
were farmed out; and the publicans ha- 
rassed the people beyond measure, by 
searches, vexations, law-suits, and other 
such odious methods. It is indeed true, 
that the elector is under some kind of neces- 
sity of burdening his subjects with a heavy 
load. His ancestors were remarkable during 
several generations, for their magnificence 
and generosity, which perhaps sometimes 
degenerated into prodigality. Hence they 
contracted heavy debts, and the present 
sovereign entertains sentiments of known 
equity too strict not to consider himself 



APPENDIX. 263 

bound to pay the creditors. His father, the 
Emperor Charles VII.'s misfortunes con- 
tributed to distress still more the public 
finances. These disorders however, are al- 
ready greatly remedied by the prudent econ- 
omy of the reigning prince. He is a lover of 
the arts and sciences ; he has instituted an 
academy, and given it much public encour- 
agement. He himself cultivates music and 
some other arts, with great success. His 
court was not at Munich, when we passed, 
and circumstances did not allow us to go to 
the country palace, where it then resided. 
The town palace is very large, but not a 
regular building. One of the apartments, 
consisting of seven or eight large rooms, and 
called the green apartment, is the most 
elegantly and completely furnished of any I 
have ever seen. Besides the richness and 
fine taste of the hangings, gilding, chairs, 
sofas, stoves, &c, it is adorned with a 
choice and magnificent collection of the 
best Italian and Flemish paintings. The 
theatre, likewise, belonging to the palace, 
though not very large, is however, finished 
with the greatest taste, and the machinery 
for shifting the scenes, &c. is admirable. 



264 APPENDIX. 

The electoral treasury, consisting of gold and 
silver plate, curiously wrought arms, and cu- 
riosities of all kinds, is likewise well worth 
the observation of a traveller, and hardly to 
be equalled by any other repository of the 
same kind. Another object deserving to be 
seen is the Jesuits' church. The inside 
architecture in particular, is of the most 
noble and manly style ; the builder was one 
of those children of genius, who are formed 
without a painful study of the rules of art. 
He was a common mason, and yet Italy, 
perhaps, cannot show so bold a vault as that 
from end to end, which forms the whole 
breadth of the church. It was ejected by 
the generosity and piety of William, Duke 
of Bavaria. This prince, eminent for his 
prudence in government, as well as his chris- 
tian virtues, ruled his states with great suc- 
cess, in very difficult times, about the mid- 
dle of the sixteenth century. He thought 
himself greatly indebted to the zeal and 
learning of the Jesuits, for preserving his sub- 
jects from the contagion of the spreading re- 
ligious errors, and through gratitude, as well 
as in order to perpetuate the same advantage 
to his people, he built and founded a college 



APPENDIX. 265 

of Jesuits at Munich. After a most prosper- 
ous reign, he resigned his government to his 
son, several years before his death, and re- 
tired to a private life which he spent in the 
constant exercise of christian virtues. He 
passed several hours a day in the church he 
had built, and in his last will, ordered his 
body to be deposited in it, under a plain 
stone, without even the inscription of his 
name, in lieu of which, he directed these 
words, taken out of the book of Job, to be 
engraved : Commissa mea pavesco et ante te 
erubesco, dum veneris judicare ; noli me con- 
demnare. It is but doing justice to the 
Jesuits of this country to add, that they have 
perfectly corresponded with the views of 
their munificent benefactor. Indefatigable 
in the service of religion, their labors have 
greatly contributed to preserve it in Bavaria, 
not only uncorrupted with the pernicicus 
tenets of the neighboring provinces, but 
moreover, to render the practical duties of it 
more generally, and more constantly at- 
tended to, than perhaps, in any other coun- 
try in Europe. The belles lettres, likewise, 
and sciences are much cultivated by them, 
23 



266 APPENDIX. 

especially the study of physics, history, and 
mathematics. 

I could get no clear state of the elector's 
revenues, which are considerable. His pre- 
decessors used to maintain a much larger 
body of troops than he has on foot at pre- 
sent. I was told there are not above eight 
thousand men. It would be well, probably, 
for the different states of Germany if the 
other princes followed this example. 

Following the road from Munich to In- 
spruch, we very soon entered into the moun- 
tains which communicate w T ith the Alps, and 
may properly be said to be a part of them. 
We passed by several lakes, formed at the 
foot of these mountains. This water is the 
finest one can see, and they are stocked 
with great quantities of excellent fish, and 
some of a peculiar species, to be met with no 
where else. The pleasing prospect these 
lakes afford, relieve the traveller, and form an 
agreeable contrast with the awful sight of 
impending mountains. The roads from Mu- 
nich to Tyrol, are kept in bad repair, and in 
no degree comparable to those, which are 
made over the Alps, throughout this latter 
province. The entrance into it on the side 



APPENDIX. 267 

of Bavaria, is defended by fortresses, impreg- 
nable more from their situation, than the 
work of art : the house of Austria, to whom 
the country of Tyrol belongs, makes it a 
capital point of politics, to preserve this pas- 
sage into Italy, in its own hands. Indeed 
the country appears to be of little other im- 
portance to the court of Vienna, besides its 
serving to connect together its German and 
Italian states : the barren mountains, which 
form the whole province, can yield but a 
small revenue to the sovereign. But the un- 
disputed communication with Italy, of which 
Austria is hereby possessed, must always 
give the latter great weight in all transac- 
tions relative to the former, or an advan- 
tage over France, especially when the latter 
chances not to be allied with the King of 
Sardinia. Inspruch, the capital of Tyrol, af- 
fords few things remarkable. There is a 
large palace with gardens much out of repair 
contiguous to it. The palace used to be the 
residence of the archduke, governor of the 
province: it was here the late Emperor 
Francis I., father of the present, and hus- 
band of the empress queen, died suddenly 
in 1765. He had come with the whole 



268 



APPENDIX. 



court of Vienna, to solemnize the marriage 
of his second son Archduke Leopold, with 
the Infanta of Spain, and to transfer to him 
the grand dutchy of Tuscany. The diver- 
sions on so solemn an occasion, were scarce 
begun, when the instantaneous death of the 
emperor put them to an end. A monument 
is erected at a small distance out of the town 
gates, to mark the spot where the Infanta 
was met by her future consort, and the 
whole court On the other side of the town 
another monument is erected in the form of 
a triumphal arch, with an inscription, im- 
porting that the emperor, empress, &c. made 
their entrance that way. In the great 
church of the Franciscans, there is nothing 
remarkable, besides the monument erected to 
the memory of the Emperor Maximilian I., 
on which are engraven bas reliefs, and distri- 
buted in different panels, all around the 
monument. 

Continuing to travel through the moun- 
tains, we met little remarkable, before we 
came to Trent. There appears to be a great 
trade carried on between Germany and the 
nearest Italian states, as we met immense 
quantities of wagons, which transport from 



APPENDIX. 269 

Lombardy and the Venetian territory, corn 
and merchandise into Tyrol. Trent is a 
small town, of which the bishop is the prince. 
But his authority is much restrained by the 
court of Vienna, and must at all times be 
subservient to its interests. The bishop is 
chosen by the chapter of the Cathedral : the 
chapter, however, is generally forced to con- 
form its choice to the dictation of Vienna. 

Here the Italian language begins to be 
spoken. This town is famous for the holding 
of the last general council. As it was called 
chiefly to stop the progress of the errors 
which took their rise in Germany before the 
middle of the sixteenth century, its situation 
was judged most convenient for the German 
and Italian bishops. The great advantage, 
which the church derived from this assembly 
is well known, though it was not so fortu- 
nate, as to put an end to the new 7 heresies^ 
The church of St. Mary Major, in which it 
was held, has nothing particular besides a 
remarkable fine organ. But the remem- 
brance of that august assembly, which met 
in it so often, and procured so great services 
to Christianity, made me view it as one of 
the most awful sanctuaries in the world, and 
23* 



270 APPENDIX. 

I could not refrain from expressing my gra- 
titude to the Author of all good. 

The mountains now began to decline 
apace : and proceeding along the Adige, 
which we had followed from its very source, 
we passed through Roveredo, a small lively 
town belonging to Austria, we came at last 
to Verona. We had now fairlv emerged into 
Italy. It is impossible for the most satur- 
nine constitution not to feel some of that en- 
thusiasm, which the remembrance of great 
men, and great actions, the remains of arts 
and sciences, the monuments of sway and 
magnificence are apt to excite in every cul- 
tivated mind. 

As at our first entrance into Italy, I could 
speak but very little Italian, without which 
the traveller must be much at a loss for pro- 
per information, I could not get all those 
lights which I wished concerning Verona, 
Mantua and Modena, which lav in our road 
to Bolonia. I shall therefore reserve what 
occurs to be said of those places, till I return 
to visit them. 

Bolonia is esteemed the second city of the 
pope's states ; is the residence of a cardinal 
legate, and was erected into an archbishopric 



APPENDIX. 271 

by Gregory XIII. a native of this town. Till 
that time, it was suffragan to the see of Ra- 
venna. The archbishop is always a cardi- 
nal, and has the title of Prince of the Holy 
Empire. The city has undergone various 
revolutions : after the dismembering of the 
Roman empire, it formed sometimes a sepa- 
rate republic, and sometimes w T as subject to 
one or other of the petty princes, who tore 
Italy to pieces ; when their tyranny became 
intolerable, it called the pope to its assist- 
ance, and made him a surrender of sove- 
reignty : afterwards reassumed its indepen- 
dency, and finally submitted again to the 
holy see, retaining how 7 ever, several privi- 
leges. 

It is situated in the fertile and immense 
plain of Lombardy immediately under the 
Appenines, which separate that plain from 
Tuscany. This position renders Bolonia a 
very agreeable place to dwell in. The hills, 
which lie on one side, are covered with 
villas, which command a noble prospect over 
the populous and cultivated plains, and on 
the other side, the view of the mountains, 
one rising over the other, all thickly peopled 
and full of vineyards, cornfields, &c, afford 



272 APPENDIX. 

an expressible pleasure to the eye. When 
one beholds the environs of Bolonia, as well 
as the throng of inhabitants in the town itself, 
the declamations of many English writers, 
on the wretched condition of the pope's 
states, the thinness of the population, the 
wretched condition of agriculture, appear as 
false as thev are fulsome and tedious. I be- 
lieve indeed, and may have occasion here- 
after to remark, that they respect, chiefly that 
part of the ecclesiastical states, which is 
called the campania of Rome; but they use 
general expressions with so much confidence, 
that I cannot forbear observing how little 
credit ought to be given to them. Mr. Addi- 
son in particular, after a long enumeration of 
the perfections, which it were natural to 
imagine in the pope's government, concludes 
with saying that it is in fact the most imper- 
fect of all, and the inhabitants infinitely more 
wretched than in the other states. This is 
undoubtedly a strange misrepresentation. 
Without question the pope's subjects are un- 
der some disadvantages peculiar to the na- 
ture of their government ; as their sovereign 
is generally advanced in years, before he 
begins to reign, it is seldom he has that spirit 






APPENDIX. 273 

which is necessary to enter upon any vigor- 
ous plan for the encouragement of industry 
and improvement of the natural richness of 
his dominions, and if now and then, some 
happy scheme is adopted, it runs great risk 
of not meeting with the same approbation in 
a succeeding reign. Thus many advantages 
proper to republics or hereditary states, are 
lost to this. Notwithstanding w T hich, it is 
a truth most obvious to the traveller's obser- 
vation, that the pope's subjects, (those at 
least, who inhabit the Bolognese, Ferrarese, 
the Romagna, the dutchy of Urbino, and the 
Marche of Ancona,) appear infinitely more 
happy, and at their ease, than those of 
Parma, Modena, and many other parts of 
Italy, to say nothing of several provinces in 
France and Germany. If trade do not 
flourish, (which is often owing to other 
causes besides want of the prince's encou- 
ragement,) at least private property is not ex- 
posed to arbitrary encroachments, as else- 
where ; and if agriculture be not so improved 
as in England, much must be imputed to the 
natural fertility of the country, which makes 
the farmer more indifferent in cultivating his 
fields; and much to that invincible indo- 



274 APPENDIX. 

lence which the violent heats produce in the 
inhabitants. However wise the legislator 
may be, he cannot always fully counteract 
the influence of the climate and seasons on 
the dispositions of the people. It appears to 
me that the great error of most travellers, in 
discoursing of the pope's states, arises from 
a comparative view of their former and pre- 
sent condition. When they behold the re- 
mains of ancient magnificence, and reflect on 
the immense population of former times, their 
imagination takes fire, and they give way to 
the popular declamations against priestly 
government, a monastical life, and the ty- 
ranny of Rome, These topics favor their 
prejudices ; their trite and common-place re- 
flections are esteemed profound philosophy ; 
and they give themselves no farther trouble 
to find out other more general causes of the 
present decay. These the man of plain 
sense, without any extraordinary depth of 
observation, will easily be able to discover. 
When all the fine arts were carried to so great 
a perfection in Rome, when the city and its 
neighborhood swarmed so thick with inhab- 
itants, is all this to be attributed merely to 
the superior excellency of the ancient, over 



APPENDIX. 275 

the present government, and to the wiser 
political maxims of heathen Rome? Must 
its former splendor be owing entirely to for- 
mer liberty, and the present decay to actual 
slavery, as superficial or passionate writers 
and poets often repeat ? To overthrow this 
ungrounded supposition, let it be considered, 
that the noblest monuments and most per- 
fect works of art, were performed during the 
reign of the first emperors, that is, during a 
period of infinitely more unrelenting tyranny, 
than was ever exercised by the worst of 
popes : that the population of Rome, its 
neighborhood, and of Italy in general, was 
the largest in the reign of Tiberius, and his 
inhuman successors, when not only private 
property, but the lives of the best men, were 
constantly exposed to the arbitrary dictates 
of a capricious tyrant. 

The superiority, therefore, of ancient over 
modern Rome arose from the same cause, 
which, though in a much less degree, pro- 
duces such a difference between London and 
Paris, and the adjacent country on one hand, 
and the remote provinces of the respective 
kingdoms on the other. If the conflux of in- 
habitants of a single kingdom, is able to 



276 APPENDIX. 

spread such an air of magnificence and 
amazing population round the capital, can 
we be surprised at the different appearance 
of Rome and its environs, at the period when 
she gave laws to the whole world, and that, 
when she does not extend her empire over 
half Italy. 

I might mention many other causes of the 
present decay more prevalent than the in- 
dolence of government ; not that I deny this 
latter to have no part in producing the down- 
fall. Abuses there are in every government, 
and perhaps they are the greatest where the 
government is mildest. 



SERMONS. 



The discourses from the pulpit, and the 
pastoral letters of Archbishop Carroll, were 
alike distinguished for their unction and 
classical taste. His voice being naturally 
feeble, the exertions which he made to be 
distinctly heard from the pulpit, rendered his 
elocution less agreeable there than in other 
situations, requiring less force of lungs. His 
colloquial powers and resources, were great 
and rich, and his kind and benignant feelings 
always prompted him to apply them to the 
best advantage. There was an irresistible 
charm and elegance indeed in his conversa- 
tions, with whomsoever and upon whatso- 
ever subject carried on, that characterised 
them as of the very first order. 

In order to enable the reader to judge 
himself as to the merits of these sermons, 
the following are selected from the many 
preached by the Archbishop, as best adapted 
for that purpose. 
24 



278 SERMONS. 

AD MAJOREM DEI GLORIAM. 

Moses indeed said : a prophet shall the Lord your God raise up 
unto you out of your brethren, like unto me : him you shall hear, 
according to all things whatsoever he shall speak to you ; and it 
shall be, that every soul that shall not hear that prophet, shall be 
destroyed from among the people.— Acts iii. 22, et seq. 

Hitherto the chief object of those religious 
instructions, which it has been my duty to 
deliver to you, dear brethren, was to imprint 
deeply in your minds the principles, and to 
recommend to your esteem, love and prac- 
tice, the precepts of christian morality. 
Little has been said by me, to convince you 
of the truth of your divine religion ; because 
I hoped and thought that all, or very nearly 
all of you, not only professed outwardly, but 
likewise inwardly believed the doctrines of 
the Christian Catholic Church. With this 
conviction on my mind, when any deviated 
unfortunately into the ways of sinfulness, I 
imputed their transgressions to human frailty, 
and ungoverned passions, and not to the dis- 
astrous lessons of infidelity. But shall I now 
disclose my fears, and openly express the 
suspicions laboring in my breast ? The last 
time of discoursing to you from this place, 
my subject led me to make a few observa- 
tions on the imperfection of the human 



SERMONS. 279 

understanding, and its insufficiency to guide 
us, not only in all points concerning the doc- 
trines and precepts of religion, but even in 
those which form, as it were, the very ele- 
ments and first principles of faith and mo- 
rality. Reflecting farther on that subject, I 
have thought it advisable and likely to pro- 
duce many beneficial effects, to treat it more 
particularly, that you may be more con- 
vinced of the imperfections of the human un- 
derstanding, and the need it has of being in- 
formed and enlightened by the splendor of 
divine revelation. For I cannot dissemble 
my fears, that many of my hearers are in- 
toxicated with that spirit of presumptive 
infidelity, which inspires a daring confidence 
in themselves, and a bold assurance that 
they need no other direction besides that 
which their own reason suggests to them. 
After seeing with anxiety and grief, that the 
many powerful means employed by God's 
merciful Providence, (over you) are far from 
having produced an universal reformation, 
or begotten an attention so general, and 
such a solicitude for salvation, as your best 
interests require ; may I not reasonably fear, 
that the mil ds of some are poisoned with 



280 SERMONS. 

error, and hav r e imbibed the doctrines of 
irreligion, especially when I consider the 
close alliance subsisting between licentious- 
ness of manners, and a contemptuous disre- 
gard for the most sacred institutions, derived 
mediately or immediately from the revealed 
word of God ; when daring unbelievers by 
advancing propositions, more blasphemous, 
if possible, than they are extravagant, as- 
sume in society a preponderance and au- 
thority, of which they avail themselves, to 
infuse into others an impious ambition of be- 
coming accomplices in their guilt 1 What- 
ever effect these vain and ostentatious ene- 
mies of truth and morality may have pro- 
duced in you, it cannot be amiss to put you 
on your guard against the shafts of their pro- 
faneness and impiety. I therefore in my text 
address you, in the language adopted by the 
prince of the apostles, St. Peter, when in the 
very birth of Christianity, he explained to the 
Jews the evidences of its truth. He reminds 
them, that their own legislator Moses, bore 
testimony in favor of Jesus Christ, of whom 
it was foretold in the law, that he should be 
endowed with the powers and all means ne- 
cessary for authenticating his divine com- 



SERMONS. 281 

mission, to teach and reform mankind, that 
it should be the duty of all to hear him in the 
things , ivhatever he should speak to them; 
and that every soul refusing to hear him 
should be destroyed. These are momentous 
points, and highly deserving your utmost at- 
tention ; for unless you be intimately con- 
vinced of the existence of religion, and your 
obligation to believe it, and submit to its 
laws, the lessons of morality can have no 
hold on your hearts. I purpose, therefore, 
with God's assistance, to prove that divine 
revelation is necessary to make known to 
mankind, with sufficient clearness, and es- 
tablish upon sufficient authority, even some 
of the first principles of the law of nature, 
and secondly, that the law of nature, as far 
as it is discoverable by the powers of human 
reason alone, leaves us ignorant of, and un- 
certain in many points of our duty to God, 
on which our happiness essentially depends. 
These propositions being proved, the result 
must be this : if a Divine revelation be ne- 
cessary for purposes so highly important, to 
deny that God has favored mankind with it, 
is an impious denial of his goodness and sin- 
cere good will to bestow happiness on his 
24* 



282 SERMONS. 

rational creatures, the works of his own 
hands. True religion lays a perpetual res- 
traint on every inordinate passion, and in- 
flexibly condemns all injustice, pride, oppres- 
sion and intemperate sensualities. This is 
the cause of the opposition it meets with, 
and of the hatred with which it has been 
calumniated and insulted in every age and 
country, by men abandoned to their lusts, 
and puffed up with pride and a vain conceit 
of the eminence of their own understandings. 
Various are their devices to free themselves 
from the yoke, the restraints and the terrors 
imposed on them by religion. Sometimes 
they attempt to discard it altogether by im- 
piously denying the existence of that Su- 
preme Being, who is its only author and ob- 
ject. But the language of these infidels is 
regarded by the royal prophet, as proceeding 
not so much from the persuasion of their 
minds, as the corruption of their hearts, and 
from the folly and blindness generated by 
shameful and disorderly lusts and passions. 
The fool, as it is expressed by the royal pro- 
phet, said in his hearty there is no God. 

Other enemies of religion, equally impa- 
tient of its control over their haughty minds 



SERMONS. 283 

and unruly desires, suggest different means of 
withdrawing themselves from a subjection 
to its precepts. Instead of denying that we 
know any thing of God and his perfections, 
of our obligations to honor him, and of our 
relative duties to our fellow-creatures, they 
pretend on the contrary, that we know every 
thing necessary in these respects, by the ex- 
ercise alone of those natural faculties and 
that portion of reason, which are granted to 
every man ; that by employing these, we 
may learn the few principles, to which they 
reduce all religion, and which, therefore, is 
called natural religion. Of this they pro- 
claim the sufficiency for all the purposes of 
worship and morality ; they celebrate its 
praises, and set themselves up for its most 
zealous advocates and champions ; and under 
this mask, they insinuate the poison of their 
tenets into incautious minds. For while 
they extol the merit and dignity of natural 
religion, their zeal and malicious purpose is, 
to inculcate a persuasion that any other 
manifestation of God's being and providence, 
any other injunctions of his will, are useless 
and unnecessary, consequently that there is 
no revealed religion, and that all pretensions 



284 SERMONS. 

to it are false and interested impositions. 
After enumerating the few articles compre- 
hended in this all-sufficient religion, behold, 
says one of the principals of this sect (Rous- 
seau) the only true religion, which is not liable 
to be perverted by impiety or fanaticism. 
Besides this, every thing else is foreign to us. 

This is that first capital error against 
which, with the Divine Assistance, I am to 
w r arn you this day. 

Allowing then to infidelity more advan- 
tages than she has a right to claim, I will 
suppose for the present (though this will be 
proved false in the sequel of our enquiries,) 
that the only principles of knowledge and 
morality necessary to our happiness are 
these: that there is a Supreme Being, the 
arbiter and disposer of all human things, who 
commands justice, truth and mutual love 
of one for the other ; and that there is a state 
of existence after this life, in which the Su- 
preme Being will dispense rewards and pun- 
ishments, according to each man's deserts. 
Religion cannot surely be reduced into a nar- 
nower compass than this, and with respect 
to the necessity of believing these articles, 
St. Paul agrees with the enemies of revela- 



SERMONS. 285 

tion. But they think and assert that these 
points are sufficiently known and enforced 
by the natural lights of reason alone; 
whereas the apostle teaches, and you, my 
dear brethren, will be convinced, I hope, 
that unless the additional authority of God's 
word come in aid of the weakness of our un- 
derstandings, mankind, in general, connot 
acquire such a certainty of these fundamen- 
tal articles of religion, as will be sufficient to 
insure their obedience and support their 
hopes. 

I am far from deprecating that precious 
gift of God, human reason ; or from asserting, 
that it must always be involved in error and 
uncertainty. But it is so liable to be blinded 
by passion, to be warped by prejudices, to 
be bewildered by the subtleties and contra- 
dictions amongst mankind, that it cannot 
teach with sufficient evidence, or prescribe 
with sufficient authority the necessary truths 
and duties just now enumerated. The 
proofs of this are to be found in the weak- 
nesses, the passions, and the history of man- 
kind ; for though we should grant that some, 
endowed with superior talents, and favored 
with the advantages of leisure and education, 



286 SERMONS. 

are able to discover the existence, unity, 
power and wisdom of God ; his providential 
superintendence over the works of his crea- 
tion, and the convincing reasons for believ- 
ing in a future state of rewards and punish- 
ments, yet is it not evident at the same time, 
that, comparatively speaking, few will be 
able to investigate these important truths ? 
and consequently that with respect to all 
others, that is, to the great bulk of mankind, 
their reason will be a most defective guide ? 
For many things concur to render them in- 
capable of and unfit for that application of 
mind, without which the very fundamental 
points of religion and morality, cannot be in- 
vestigated and understood sufficiently, to 
command our belief and practice. Many are 
incapable through bodily indisposition, many 
more are rendered so by the necessity of 
providing for the subsistence of their fami- 
lies, and by unavoidable occupations inci- 
dent to their conditions of life, and have 
neither time nor opportunity to make those 
deep researches, without which they must 
remain ignorant, in a great degree, of the 
things most needful to be known, respecting 
God, their own duties, and the end of their 



SERMONS. 287 

creation, I mention no other obstacles, to 
prevent the researches and discoveries of the 
human understanding when left to its own 
natural powers, besides these, which extend 
to so large a portion of mankind, as evidently 
to demonstrate the necessity of other means 
of information, than those of reason alone. 
Can any judicious and reflecting mind per- 
suade itself, that the multitude, who have to 
struggle with these obstacles, whose progress 
in knowledge must be retarded by them at 
every step, will be able to discover suffi- 
ciently, not only the existence, but the na- 
ture and providence of God, and our account- 
ability to him ? 

A farther proof of the necessity of a su- 
perior direction is this : that these compara- 
tively few persons, to whom leisure, educa- 
tion and supereminent talents, are not 
wanting to explore the essential truths of 
natural religion, cannot nevertheless succeed 
in their enquiries, without much and long in- 
vestigation; during the whole period of 
which, as their understanding is in a per- 
petual state of fluctuation, so their moral 
conduct must be without any invariable rule 
and direction. For in the first place, even 



288 



SERMONS. 



the brightest and most penetrating geniuses, 
must meditate long on God's nature and at- 
tributes ; on the qualities of the human soul ; 
on the powers of our mind ; on the differ- 
ences of virtue and vice, and the future condi- 
tion of the good and wicked, before they can 
be fully satisfied (if ever they are satisfied) 
of the truth of their speculations. In the 
meantime, that is, during a great part of their 
lives, they would be floating on the waves 
of doubt and uncertainty, without sufficient 
motives to cherish virtue or fly from vice, 
unless God enlightened them, and by his 
divine revelation, compensated the imperfec- 
tions and slow progress of human reason. 

Again ; no time of life requires to be go- 
verned and restrained by fixed and indubita- 
ble principles and precepts, so much as that 
of our youthful years, when all our passions 
are in a state of ferment, and agitated by the 
tempests of most boisterous and tumultuous 
desires. Is this period of our existence 
adapted to the cool, unbiassed and elaborate 
enquiries and meditation, necessary to dis- 
cover and demonstrate the essential truths 
of natural religion ? Experience teaches on 
the contrary, that however favorable the 



SERMONS. 289 

season of youth may be to the cultivation of 
those sciences and those literary pursuits, 
which please and embellish the imagination, 
it is nevertheless the most unfit for the study 
of that sacred morality, that divine philoso- 
phy which requires stability of thought and 
maturity of reflection. To gain their entire 
belief, and obtain their obedience, truth 
must be manifested, and come recommended 
to them by an irrefragable, a much higher 
authority, and more persuasive influence than 
the dubious and controverted opinions of 
men, distrustful themselves, if they be truly 
learned and modest ; or disgustful by their 
rash confidence, if they be presumptuous. 
Behold then another convincing proof of the 
necessity of a Divine revelation, to supply the 
defects of the mere natural powers of human 
reason. 

To evince more fully this necessity, the 
best argument which I shall now draw from 
the imperfection of the human mind, is this : 
if some, after much investigation, come at 
length to a demonstration of the first prin- 
ciples of religion and morality, yet they are 
never able to form any regular and con- 
sistent system of either; the reason is, 
25 



290 SERMONS. 

because they mix and disfigure the truth 
with many fatal errors, as will be shown not 
only by the history of the most eminent sages 
of antiquity, who were not enlightened by 
the torch of revelation, but like wise by the 
example of modern unbelievers, who extin- 
guish it in their hearts and vainly undertake 
to find their way without its direction. St. 
Paul speaks of such in his first chapter to the 
Romans, ivhofrom the creation of the world — 
. . . when they had known God, glorified him, 
not as God . . . but became vain in their 
thoughts, and their foolish hearts were dark- 
ened who changed the truth of God into 

a lie. 

If any doubts can yet remain on our minds 
of the necessity of a Divine revelation, these 
must vanish, when we consider the endless 
uncertainties, and inconceivable errors of the 
wisest amongst the ancients, who were not 
favored with the knowledge of it, and of 
those most celebrated wits of our own times, 
who rejected the truths which God in his 
mercy has displayed before them. To begin 
with the ancients: Socrates universally es- 
teemed us the wisest of the heathen world, 
after having discovered by the acuteness of 



SERMONS. 291 

his mind, and the penetration of his intel- 
lectual powers, the existence and many of 
the perfections of the one, only God, affords 
us nevertheless a memorable instance of the 
darkness in which human reason, unassisted 
by revelation, leaves the mind involved. 
For this eminent sage, after all his re- 
searches into, and discoveries of God's nature 
and attributes, being at the point of death, 
had the weakness, and thought it his duty to 
comply with the popular superstition of his 
country, and command a sacrifice to one of 
its false divinities ; nor was this all ; for after 
many sublime speculations and discourses on 
the nature and immortality of the human 
soul, his very last words are expressive of 
the greatest uncertainty respecting this very 
point — I mean a state of future existence ; 
without the firm belief of which, it is evident 
there can be no religion ; none at least to 
deter us from the commission of vice, or en- 
courage us in the practice of virtue. 

If such were the errors and uncertainties 
of so great a master in the faculty and art of 
reasoning as Socrates, we can be less sur- 
prised that other eminent philosophers of 
Greece and Rome blended so many grievous 



292 SERMONS. 

errors with the few religious truths dis- 
covered by them ; not only speculative but 
practical errors, pregnant with the greatest 
corruption of manners. The splendid tal- 
ents and unrivalled elegance of Plato, could 
not preserve him from such astonishing blind- 
ness of understanding, that he recommended 
and advocated the practice of the most exe- 
crable and unnatural vices ; such vices, as 
every christian, blessed with the light of 
revelation, not only trembles to commit, but 
even blushes to hear mentioned. 

Let us now turn our eyes from ancient 
philosophers and sages, to contemplate the 
infidels of a later date, and those of our own 
times. Here we shall meet a still more sen- 
sible demonstration of the insufficiency of 
human reason. To evidence this, I will 
select for your information a few examples 
from the history and writings of those men 
whom the tribe of deists venerate as pre- 
eminent in talents and wisdom. In the first 
place, it appears evident to the christian, and 
I may say farther, that if the light of nature 
alone makes evident any one principle of 
morality, it is this, that human liberty is ne- 
cessary to the morality of human actions; 



SERMONS. 



293 



that it is incompatible with the divine jus- 
tice, to make man accountable and liable to 
punishment for doing or omitting those 
things which it is impossible for him to avoid 
doing or omitting ; and to which he is com- 
pelled by the necessity of his nature and the 
circumstances attending him, or by the de- 
crees and ordering of God himself: that if 
man enjoy no power of self-determination, 
he cannot be a moral agent, and those things 
which always have been deemed the great- 
est enormities, as murders, parricides, incests, 
would be, in the estimation of right reason, 
no crimes at all, if he who committed them 
was compelled by commanding and irresisti- 
ble necessity. What a dreadful perversion 
of order, what an inundation of the most 
horrible excesses would break in upon the 
world, if these opinions had general preva- 
lence ? But fatal as is their tendency, these 
are the doctrines of many of the most famous 
modern enemies of revelation. None amongst 
them have surpassed Hume in subtlety of 
argument and acuteness of understanding. 
Yet having discarded revelation, and dis- 
daining to follow any other guide than his 
own reasoning faculty, he not only asserts 

25* 



294 SERMONS. 

without ambiguity, but employs all his tal- 
ents to prove, that mankind act continually 
under the influence of necessity ; that they 
really enjoy no freedom of determination, 
and that they are always under a delusion, 
while they imagine themselves to enjoy per- 
fect liberty. 

Again, vice in this world is generally so 
elevated and virtue so depressed ; so many 
are the enjoyments of the wicked, whom no 
considerations of conscience restrain, and so 
continual are the self-denials which a sense 
of duty imposes on the good, that there 
would be no consolation for the latter, if the 
belief of a future state and of the immortal- 
ity of their souls did not support their hopes, 
and certify to them, that all the seeming dis- 
orders and irregularities of this life, would 
be rectified by a just and righteous God in 
the life to come. I3ut what do we learn on 
this important point from modern infidelity ? 
If we consult another of its greatest lights ; 
one, whose brilliant talents have been cele- 
brated with the most exalted encomiums, we 
find nothing but uncertainty and discourage- 
ment respecting a tenet so necessary to 
morality, so essential to the encouragement 



SERMONS. 295 

of virtue. This great man's reason could 
discover no sufficient proof of a future state. 
Ah ! my brethren, who sees not in this ac- 
knowledgment the necessity of Divine reve- 
lation ? Nor does Bolingbroke alone betray 
the state of uncertainty and doubt in so 
capital an article. Almost all other advo- 
cates for the sufficiency of natural reason, 
hold the same language. The unbelieving 
Voltaire, he, whose writings are so widely 
diffused to the destruction of religion and 
manners, endeavors continually to raise 
doubts to obscure the doctrine of immor- 
tality. His numerous disciples have caught 
his spirit, and sometimes lament, with hypo- 
critical concern, that a doctrine so full of 
comfort, remains so full of doubt ; whereas 
in their hearts they wish nothing so much, 
as that it may be false, having all to fear 
from its truth. You remember, my christian 
brethren, to have read with horror some 
years ago, a particular account of the deaths 
of more than twenty of these apostates to 
anti-christian philosophy, who were sacri- 
ficed at the same time to the vengeance of a 
faction, more powerful and sanguinary than 
themselves ; when they were at the instant 



296 SERMONS. 

of their execution, when their heads were 
just ready to be laid under the fatal instru- 
ment, instead of disposing themselves for 
reconciliation with the great judge of man- 
kind, they affected to discuss the reasons 
for and against a future state, and closed 
their existence here with expressions of the 
utmost uncertainty respecting any existence 
hereafter. Yet, by all accounts, these men 
had great endowments from nature, and had 
cultivated them by the study of every human 
science. After these memorable examples, 
who will be bold enough to assert the suffi- 
ciency of human reason for all the purposes 
of morality and religion ? Indeed, so many 
evidences have occurred in these our times, 
not only of the advantages, but absolute ne- 
cessity of revelation, that the sincere friend 
of religion feels one comfort amidst all his 
disasters. He consoles himself with this re- 
flection, that perhaps Divine Providence has 
permitted some of the first geniuses of the age 
to pursue without restraint, their own sys- 
tems and speculations, that we might take 
instruction from their fatal and monstrous 
errors, and learn how deeply we are inter- 
ested in having for our guide in the way of 



SERMONS. 297 

salvation, a more study rule than the natural 
lights of the most famed philosophers. To 
give this lesson was worthy of divine wis- 
dom; especially in an age when infidelity 
and a contemptuous disregard for the revela- 
tion and gospel of Jesus Christ, were laying 
waste his kingdom on earth, his glorious in- 
heritance, and threatening to extirpate from 
the world all respect for his law and most 
holy name. And we may hope that infinite 
wisdom, drawing good out of evil, will make 
the delusions themselves of anti-christian 
skepticism, and the extravagance of its er- 
rors, the very means of its total overthrow, 
by discovering to all men the depth of 
misery into which we should be plunged 
without the cheering light of revelation. 

However demonstrative of this truth, the 
examples hitherto adduced are, yet I must 
beg leave to trespass on your patience, by 
alleging one more, which places this point, 
if possible, in a still stronger light. Accus- 
tomed, as we are from our infancy, to consi- 
der and honor God as the source of goodness 
and justice, and experiencing many effects of 
these divine attributes in the providence 
exercised over ourselves and others, we 



298 SERMONS. 

naturally conclude that every human crea- 
ture must confess, that justice and goodness 
are inseparable from the Supreme Being ; 
and that we need consult no other light 
than natural reason, to be firmly convinced 
of it, and certainly without a firm persuasion 
that God is possessed of these perfections, 
the whole race of mankind would be ex- 
posed to the most outrageous violence, all 
peace would be banished, all confidence 
destroyed, and life itself, instead of being a 
blessing, would be our most grievous misfor- 
tune. All this, notwithstanding, if we turn 
to those luminaries of the modern world, who 
are said to have diffused a splendor over the 
present age, greater than ever enlightened 
any other, do we find that their writings il- 
lustrate this fundamental doctrine of morali- 
ty, this consolatory truth, the great Master 
and Lord of the universe, is infinitely good, 
and infinitely just? No, my christian breth- 
ren, I am sure that you will hear me with 
astonishment. Almost all these famed phi- 
losophers spread doubts and uncertainty re- 
specting this subject, and employ the subtlety 
of their understandings, to prove that there 
is no sufficient evidence of wisdom and jus- 



SERMONS. 299 

tice appertaining to the All-powerful God. 
This they expressly teach, and make this 
doctrine the basis of many other impious 
opinions, tending to remove every barrier 
against vice, and to damp all ardor for im- 
provement, or perseverance in virtue. After 
exhibiting these almost incredible and per- 
nicious errors of the great leaders in the 
cause of infidelity, I need insist no farther 
on the manifest insufficiency of reason alone, 
to teach us all the necessary points of even 
the law and religion of nature. 

From the observations already made, may 
I not hope, that you both feel, and will tes- 
tify the most sincere gratitude and reverence 
to that Divine Person, ivho enlighteneth every 
man coming into this world ? (John i. 9) who 
has spread the effulgence of revelation over 
the face of the earth, and has not left us to 
grope in darkness, or afforded only the dim 
light of reason to search into the ways of 
truth and life, but the grace of God, our Sa- 
viour, has appeared to all men, instructing 
us, that renouncing impiety and worldly de- 
sir es^we should live soberly, and piously, and 
justly in this world, waiting for the blessed 
hope, and coming of the glory of the great 



300 SERMONS. 

God, and our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Titus 
ii. 7, et seq. With this impression on your 
minds, you will not only be prepared to re- 
sist the insidious and poisonous lessons of in- 
fidelity, but you will even refuse to hear 
them. Expose not yourselves to the artful 
seduction of books destined to weaken and 
extinguish your faith. Be not misled by that 
miserable sophistry, which pretends that 
none should be afraid of reading works, how- 
ever hostile to religion, that to be convinced 
of its truth, they should know the objections 
raised against it. What? is there no other 
way of being acquainted with the malignity 
of poison, but by drinking it up ? Are not 
the evidences of divine revelation so many 
and convincing, that we may safely and 
firmly believe it without searching to know 
whatever pride and licentiousness have de- 
vised to oppose it ? Let it be your duty to 
fly from danger, which many of you are not 
prepared to encounter. Let humility of 
faith be your shelter and safe-guard. In 
this most important concern, bear in your 
mind these words of my text : it shall be, that 
every soul which will not hear that Prophet 
whom the Lord God hath sent, shall be de- 



SERMONS. 301 

stroyed from among the people : that is, they 
who reject his doctrines shall not belong to 
the chosen race, destined to the possession 
of an everlasting inheritance of glory. May 
God vouchsafe to rescue us, at least, from 
that fatal destruction, and save us in his 
mercy, through the merits of Jesus Christ. 
Amen. deo gratias. 



AD MAJOREM DEI GLORIAM. 

January 17, 1802. 

There was a marriage in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Je- 
sus was there, and Jesus also was invited. — John ii. 1, 2. 

A marriage, honored with the presence of 
Jesus and Mary, must have been attended 
with uncommon blessings ; and though the 
gospel gives no further account of the subse- 
quent lives and conduct of the persons 
whose union was formed with such happy 
auspices, yet there is every reason to sup- 
pose, that the graces bestowed on them by 
and through Jesus Christ, inspired into their 
hearts, and preserved ever afterwards those 
dispositions, which exhibit the excellency 
and perfection of a married state. This, 
26 



302 SERMONS. 

according to the appointment and direction 
of Divine Providence, is the general state of 
mankind ; and therefore it is proper and use- 
ful for christians to know and reflect on those 
points of duty, which previous to, and after 
their matrimonial union, are necessary to 
render it acceptable to God, and fortunate to 
themselves. It is a painful and melancholy 
consideration, that so many marriages should 
be followed by such unhappiness, as we all 
frequently may witness ; and that the closest 
connection, ordained by heaven, to be formed 
between two persons, and which therefore 
should be the cement of their tenderest af- 
fections, generates so often the fiercest con- 
tentions, reproaches, and envenomed hatred. 
It would betray a great ignorance of human 
nature, to say that the universal and sole 
cause of such misfortunes is an inattention 
to, and neglect of those important lessons 
concerning matrimony, which are given in 
the gospels, and other books of scripture. 
The natural perversity of tempers, and dif- 
ference of characters contribute likewise, no 
doubt, to poison the happiness of a married 
state; and experience as well as religion, 
concur in evincing the truth of the doctrine 



SERMONS. 303 

of the apostle, that though marriage be 
honorable (Heb. 13,) yet it imposes a yoke 
and a burden ; though it be a great sacra- 
ment . ..in Christ and the church (Eph. 5 5 ) 
yet they who receive it, shall suffer tribula- 
tion of the flesh, (1 Cor. 7) ; in a word, 
though it be an institution of God, yet that 
there is another condition and state of life, 
more sublime and excellent in its nature, of 
which our divine Saviour spoke, when he 
said : All men receive not this word ; but they 

to whom it is given he, ivho can receive 

it , let him receive it. — Matt. xix. 11, 12. 

If even common observation did not give 
sufficient evidence of a painful truth, we 
might learn from these expressions of holy 
writ, that the ways of matrimony are not 
strewed with roses only, as rash and head- 
long youth often persuade themselves ; but 
that they are likewise beset with thorns and 
briars, to incommode, and, alas! often griev- 
ously to harass those who engage in it. 
What counsel, my dear brethren, can avail 
you in this situation % It becomes our min- 
istry to suggest none from this place, but 
that which collected from the doctrines of 
eternal wisdom, establishes rules of conduct 



304 



SERMONS. 



for every lawful condition of life. Having 
these present to my mind, I shall consider 
you as divided into two classes : one con- 
sisting of those, who are in a single state, 
but contemplate a married one, as that which 
will form the destiny of their future lives; 
the other, of those who are engaged in it al- 
ready. To the first, this discourse will be 
addressed. Being fully sensible of the deli- 
cacy of the subject, I will endeavor, w T ith 
God's help, so to treat it, as neither to give 
offence to the chastest ear, nor derogate from 
the dignity of the sacred ministry, which 
I am now called to perform. 

The comprehensive wisdom of Almighty 
God adapts that religion, of which he is the 
author, and w T hich alone deserves to be dig- 
nified by that honorable appellation, to the 
improvement and perfection of his rational 
creatures, in all their stages through life, and 
in the different permanent states and condi- 
tions in which they lawfully engage them- 
selves. To view religion in this light, is to 
place it in one of its sublimest attitudes; 
diffusing its directions and benefits on the 
children of men, from their birth into this 



SERMONS. 305 

world, to their departure for eternity ; re- 
generating them by baptism ; fortifying, in the 
sacrament of confirmation, their faith, and 
perfecting their infant virtues, by infusing all 
the gifts of the Holy Ghost ; in the Eucharist, 
nourishing their languishing souls with the 
bread of angels ; repairing their lost inno- 
cence and reconciling them anew to heaven, 
by the sacred and merciful institution of 
penance; assuaging their anguish, and en- 
couraging their hope in the agonies of sick- 
ness, by prayer and the consecrated unc- 
tion ; and finally, sanctifying that union 
which preserves the perpetuity of human 
kind, by elevating it to the character and 
dignity of a sacrament, and becoming a re- 
presentation of that indissoluble union, which 
subsists between Christ and his church. Is 
it possible to furnish a more exalted idea of 
matrimony, than is thus stirred up in our 
minds, when we consider this sublime rela- 
tion which it bears to Christ espoused to his 
church ? Whilst heathens and carnal men 
view it only with reference to the gratifica- 
tion of their sensual desires ; whilst worldly 
policy only calculates its advantages, rela- 
tively to the artificial combinations of civil 
26* 



306 



SERMONS. 



society, Christianity ennobles the matrimonial 
union, by annexing to it a religious and most 
sacred signification; it disengages it, as I 
may say, from the contagion of being formed 
merely for the low and grovelling purposes 
of sensuality, and of carnal wisdom. 

It is thus, my dear brethren, that you, w T ho 
are destined to enter hereafter into a mar- 
ried state, should view the contract w 7 hich 
w r ill bind you during life. You are christ- 
ians ; you are Catholic Christians ; you pro- 
fess to be of that religion which teaches that 
the union formed by matrimony is a sacra- 
ment of most sublime signification ; that the 
efficacy annexed to this sacrament is to con- 
vey those graces to your souls, which will 
enable you to bear the trials and fulfil the 
duties of a married state ; that being a sa- 
crament, it requires, as an indispensable con- 
dition of receiving it worthily, that your con- 
sciences be purified from the guilt of grievous 
offences at the time when you come to the 
solemnization of your marriage. On these 
truths which you profess as a part of your 
religious creed, are established your obliga- 
tions respecting the important point of 
which we now treat ; and which, perhaps, 



SERMONS. 307 

will be seen clearer, and better understood 
by contrasting them with that conduct 
which is commonly pursued in the world. 

If then we turn our eyes towards the 
generality of those who design to engage in 
matrimony, we must acknowledge that three 
very prevailing abuses present themselves to 
our view : in the first place, they form their 
engagements without reflection on, or refer- 
ence to those purposes, for which marriage 
was instituted, and raised to such eminent 
dignity in the church of God : secondly, they 
form them imprudently, without consulting 
those persons to whom they should look up 
for advice and direction ; and without those 
sacred regards to the security of their own 
faith, or that of the issue, which may be the 
fruit of their marriage, they use no solicitude 
to cleanse and preserve their consciences 
from the contagion and defilement of sin. 
These defects are directly opposite to their 
obligations, and tend to render their mar- 
riages criminal before God, and sovereignly 
unhappy for themselves. 

I said first, that engagements of matrimony 
are made generally without any reflection 
on, or deliberate purpose of referring and or- 



308 SERMONS. 

daining it to those ends for which it was in- 
stituted by eternal wisdom. To follow the 
impulse of a violent, or a romantic, or a mer- 
cenary passion, and to escape from the con- 
trol and watchfulness of parental authority, 
are the objects most generally sought for in 
matrimony — the ends for which it is solicit- 
ed and embraced. But were these pur- 
poses contemplated by Divine Providence in 
its institution ? Let us consult revelation on 
this head. Soon after the creation of Adam, 
his Creator made provision for the binding 
of him in society, that he might enjoy its 
comforts. It is not good, says God, speaking 
of Adam, for man to be alone ; let us make 
him a help like to himself. Gen. ii. 18. Again, 
in the Book of Tobias, the Holy Ghost pro- 
poses to us the example of a marriage con- 
ducted in perfect conformity to the will of 
God; and young Tobias thus expresses his 
views and holy purpose in contracting his 
union with the virtuous daughter of Raguel : 
Lord, says he, thou knowest that not for 
fleshly lust do I take my sister to wife, but 
only for the love of posterity, in which thy 
name may be blessed for ever and evermore. 
Tob. viii. 9. Finally, St. Paul in his first 



SERMONS. 309 

Epistle to the Corinthians, assigns another 
reason and end to be obtained by marriage ; 
which is, that it may operate as a restraint 
on unlawful desires and criminal excesses. 
How delicate, my brethren, is the function of 
the ministry of the word in these times, when 
we dare not use, in your presence, the ex- 
pression of St. Paul himself, upon this sub- 
ject, without offending that fastidious deli- 
cacy, which is often much more punctilious 
in criticising the language of the pulpit, than 
they who object to it, are observant of de- 
cency in words and actions. I say, says the 
apostle, to the unmarried, and to the widows, 
it is good for them, if they so continue even as 
I: but if their experience convince them of 
the need of providing against imminent dan- 
gers to their virtue, let them marry. 

These then are the ends of matrimony, as 
laid down in the revealed word of God r in 
the first place to obtain the assistance and 
consolations derivable from the society of a 
companion, who being of a correspondent 
temper and manners, and trained in similar 
habits, will participate with sensibility and 
affection, in all the duties and domestic 
cares ; who will assist the other partner to 



310 SERMONS. 

bear afflictions with patience, and blessings 
with thankfulness and gratitude ; who will 
not add weight to the unavoidable cares of 
life, by brutal insult and intemperance, or by 
the asperity and endless contradictions of an 
ungovernable temper. 

But do considerations of this kind sway 
your choice of partners for life? On the 
contrary, does not a blind and unreflecting 
passion impose continually on the willing 
credulity of most young persons, who pur- 
posely cast a veil over their eyes, that they 
may not see those defects and vices in the 
objects of their partiality, which strike every 
other beholder? Do they not rashly and 
presumptuously flatter themselves, with the 
vain hope of working a reform in those on 
whom the powerful motives of religion, the 
persuasions of parental tenderness, and the 
admonitions of friendship made no impres- 
sion ? Blind to every thing else, and only 
seeing the pleasing outside of the object, 
with which they are enamored, they never 
bestow a serious thought on the disparity of 
temper, the variance of their propensities, 
the unsuitableness of their manners, and for- 
getting that they ought to seek in marriage 



SERMONS. 311 

the assistance and comforts of a virtuous 
companion, they cast themselves into the 
power of intemperance, of prodigality, of sor- 
did avarice, of unblushing licentiousness, or 
the caprices of every irregular emotion, to 
which the human heart can be a prey. Do 
marriages so formed deserve to be honored, I 
say not by the visible presence of Jesus and 
Mary, as that spoken of in the Gospel, but 
even by his invisible grace and blessing? 
Are they worthy of being representations of 
the union of Christ with his church ? Must 
not unhappiness and vexation be the issue of 
such marriages ? Will not offences against 
heaven be multiplied in consequence of en- 
gagements so indiscreetly, and I may almost 
add, so wickedly formed ? 

Another end, for which matrimony was 
designed, is that which was observed before, 
is mentioned by the virtuous Tobias, the love 
of posterity, in which the name of the Lord 
may be blessed for ever and evermore. Who- 
ever loves God, and is penetrated with a 
grateful sense of his manifold blessings and 
favors, must wish and rejoice, that thousands 
and tens of thousands of tongues should pro- 
claim his greatness, and sing forth his praises ; 



312 SERMONS. 

and whoever are disposed to engage in mat- 
rimony, while their minds are under this im- 
pression of love for, and gratitude to God, 
will refer their intended union not merely to 
the purpose of having a posterity to inherit 
their own names, but to honor the great 
Creator and Father of mankind ; they will 
resolve to receive the children with which 
heaven may bless their marriage, as gifts to 
be rendered back to him from whom they 
may be received, and offered to be impressed 
with the character of his adopted children. 
Thus their natural birth will be a prepara- 
tion for their regeneration to God through 
Jesus Christ, in the w T aters of baptism. How 
far above and superior to the vulgar and 
common estimate of marriage, is this view of 
it, exhibited by our divine religion 1 and 
how much is it to be wished, for the happi- 
ness of mankind, that it were always con- 
sidered in this light 1 

The last in order, as well as the lowest in 
perfection, of the ends of matrimony, is that 
of which St. Paul speaks in the passage before 
cited, and which he addresses to unmarried 
persons — signifying to them, that they may 
find in marriage a defence and resource 



SERMONS. 313 

against the assaults of temptation, and the un- 
steadiness of their virtue. He calls marriage 
a remedy for the cure of so grievous a disor- 
der ; but he knew too well the excellency 
and sublime perfection of our religion, to say 
that this was the only remedy, or that this 
remedy was necessarily to be used ; he knew 
that these sacraments and graces of Jesus 
Christ were sufficient, if not to suppress, at 
least to subdue our passions, and overcome 
inveterate habits ; and therefore, speaking in 
another place of his own inward conflicts, he 
says: Who shall deliver me from the body of 
this death ? The grace of God by Jesus 
Christ, our Lord (Rom. vii. 24), and even 
where he recommends the remedy of mar- 
riages as a preservative against sin, he takes 
care to inform us, that it is granted as an in- 
dulgence, and not imposed as a command- 
ment. — 1 Cor. vii. 6. Wherefore, if amongst 
you, dear brethren, there be any who unfor- 
tunately are entangled in criminal habits 
and connexions; if you have been drawn 
again into sin, by the prevalence of that em- 
pire which sensual passions have gained over 
you, remember that one of the purposes of the 
institution of marriage is, to cover you from 
27 



314 SERMONS. 

the attacks of impure desires ; and if you 
have not courage and resolution enough to 
fight for a more glorious victory over them, 
avail yourselves of that resource which mar- 
riage offers you. 

Having now enumerated the excellent 
and salutary purposes for w T hich marriage 
was instituted, it is left to you to consider 
whether, when you form designs of future al- 
liances and the thoughts of a matrimonial 
establishment occupy your minds, whether, 
I say, you keep in your view those ends for 
which Divine Providence ordained the conju- 
gal union 1 Do you not rather comtemplate 
the attainment of other purposes ? Do you 
not propose to deliver yourselves from the 
control of parental authority, and to possess 
yourselves of wealth, pre-eminence and sen- 
sual gratifications ? Are not these alone the 
objects which your hearts desire? 

A second cause, w T hy so many marriages 
prove unhappy, and are deprived of the 
blessings promised by God, is the reprehen- 
sible and criminal rashness and imprudence 
with which they are contracted. No event 
of life entails such lasting consequences, nor 
is so pregnant with happiness or misery, and 



SERMONS. 315 

therefore none demands more recourse tfy 
prayer to God for direction, or stands more 
in need of disinterested advice. In the sea- 
son of youth, the tide of passions runs with 
the greatest rapidity, and requires the direc- 
tion of steady experience and the tenderest 
solicitude. Where will young persons be so 
sure of finding this assistance as from their 
parents ? I speak at present of the general- 
ity of parents, and not of those unnatural 
murderers of their children's happiness, who 
are ready to sacrifice it to the demons of 
interest and ambition. I hope there are none 
such amongst the hearers to whom I now 
address myself. But I fear there are, 
amongst their sons and daughters, some 
who, with the rash confidence so fatal to their 
age, engage themselves under solemn pro- 
mises of marriage without asking the advice 
they need so much, or obtaining that con- 
sent, which it is so much their obligation to 
solicit. After this first undutiful act of en- 
gaging themselves without the knowledge of 
their parents, they then make advantage of 
their very undutifulness to extort, not con- 
sent, but painful acquiescence. What is too 
frequently the consequence of these mar- 



316 SERMONS. 

rikges ? Reflection succeeds to the first ar- 
dors of passion ; the hand of time brushes 
away the mist, which concealed from their 
eyes those blemishes and stains which were 
conspicuous to every one else : mutual cold- 
ness, disesteem, disrespect, dissension, and 
finally, hatred, follow each other, and a mar- 
ried state into which the parties entered 
with so little respect for the laws of God, 
instead of being attended with happiness, be- 
comes the most miserable condition on earth. 
Amongst other concurrent causes of so 
great misfortunes and lasting depravity, may 
we not account that which is recorded in the 
26th chapter of Genesis, that Esau married 
Judith . . . and Basemath .... and offended 
the mind of his Father and Mother, Isaac 
and Rebecca ? Ought you not to keep be- 
fore your eyes this memorable example of 
God's severity in punishing filial undutiful- 
ness ? Should it not deter you from being 
guilty of the same transgression, lest you 
likewise become victims of Divine justice, 
and punished in your posterity through many 
generations, for having violated the sanctity 
of marriage by your undutiful conduct in 
contracting it 7 



SERMONS, 317 

It results from these observations, that it 
is the duty of young persons, a duty sug- 
gested by reason, as well as religion, to con- 
sult and take direction from their parents, 
before they make proposals of marriage or 
give their unconditional consent to them. 
It is true the parents have no right to com- 
pel the choice of their children ; and this, so 
far from being a prerogative attached to 
their condition, would be a cruel and un- 
warrantable exercise of authority; but na- 
tural and revealed religion equally teach, 
that they have a right to advise and object ; 
that their objections should have the great- 
est weight ; and generally speaking, should 
be definitive against the union which they 
condemn. 

Nor is the authority of the parents only 
to be consulted on these occasions. The or- 
dinances of religion, the salutary maxims and 
directions of the Church require your dutiful 
obedience. It has been mentioned to you 
already, that two of the purposes for which 
marriage was instituted, are: first, the conso- 
lation and encouragement to be found under 
the burthens of this life, in the company and 
assistance of a person, united in disposition 

27* 



318 SERMONS. 

and similar habits of faith and piety towards 
God : and secondly, the hope of posterity, 
which may honor their Maker by the docility 
to his law, and the devout exercises of praise, 
thankfulness and union, with Christ in the 
great Eucharistic offering to his eternal 
Father. Now, to correspond with these de- 
signs of Providence, it is ordained by the 
Church, that its members should choose for 
their indissoluble companions through life, 
only such as are united in the profession of 
the same faith. Under the law of Moses, 
this was prescribed with the greatest rigor, 
and the violation of the law punished with 
the most exemplary severity. In this dis- 
pensation of grace under Jesus Christ, to 
deviate from this rule is to expose your own 
happiness, as well as that of the children 
you may have, to the greatest danger. The 
opposite religious opinions of the father and 
mother serve to perplex, and finally to make 
their children indifferent about the tenets or 
practices of Christianity ; and being thus in- 
different, they fall an easy prey to the artifi- 
cial sophistry of deists, and finally discard 
from their minds even the belief of God's 
moral government. I have spoken so often 



. 



SERMONS. 319 

and so much against marriages thus con- 
tracted, as to render it the less necessary to 
add more at present, except it be to bear 
this public testimony against them, and ex- 
press my deep concern, that we are so often 
compelled, for fear of greater evils, to lend 
our ministry to their celebration. If some of 
them be attended with salutary conse- 
quences, many leave us cause for the most 
poignant sorrow, and almost induce us to 
repent that we ever concurred in forming 
them. Finally, another common abuse pre- 
ceding marriage is, that in the interval be- 
tween the engagement and celebration of it, 
little care is taken to preserve or to free their 
consciences from the burthen and contagion 
of sin. Need I admonish you, my dear 
brethren, that the promise of marriage does 
not exempt you from the obligation of lead- 
ing chaste lives, and preserving the original 
integrity of your bodies and minds ? that it 
is still sinful for you to admit deliberately 
those thoughts or desires, which purity en- 
deavors always to suppress ? to hear those 
conversations which call up the blushes of 
innocence? or suffer those familiarities, 
which weaken the delicacy and sensibility of 



320 SERMONS. 

virtue, and diminish the holy and filial fear 
of God in your souls ? If during those days 
of danger, which intervene between the 
promise and its solemnization, you should be- 
come less careful of yourselves, less solicitous 
of offending God, will there not be reason to 
suspect your preparation for receiving the 
sacrament of matrimony ? As a sacrament 
of Divine institution, it requires in those who 
are admitted to it, a conscience purified from 
the stains of sin, otherwise they would be 
guilty of a profanation and sacrilege; and 
where they ought to receive a blessing, and 
graces to fulfil the obligations of their new 
state, they will, on the contrary, draw upon 
themselves the displeasure, and perhaps, alas! 
the curse of Heaven. From these considera- 
tions, let me exhort you to make this christian 
resolution : before marriage, to seek above all 
things, to render Heaven propitious to it, not 
only by avoiding offences against the law of 
God, but by the exercises of christian peni- 
tence to expiate those committed heretofore ; 
to have recourse to the sacraments of for- 
giveness and the Holy Eucharist, some days 
previous to marriage ; and if any thing should 
disturb again the peace of your consciences 









SERMONS. 321 

before the day destined for its celebration, 
seek a new tranquillity and reconciliation in 
the tribunal of confession. 

May the mercy of God render these in- 
structions profitable to those to whom they 
were principally addressed, as well as to us 
all, that we may enjoy both temporal and 
eternal happiness. d. g. 




JOHN IIIVfiPBT, 

PRINTER, PUBLISHER & BOOKSELLER, 
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Has recently added to his former business a BOOK STORE and BOOK 
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A Conference on the Authority of the Church, held 
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2lZ<t 






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